I'm sorry, but I'm getting extremely annoyed over people straining at definitio
ns. If you don't know what libraries and museums are, look it up in your Funk
& Wagnalls, as they used to say on "Laugh-In" (that dates me!), or try your Web
ster's. These are extremely serviceable definitions, and I see no need to re-i
nvent the dictionary wheel or the language wheel along with all the other wheel
s people want to re-invent. A museum contains or houses objects or artifacts w
hich have historical, scientific or artistic value. A library contains books.
This is not nearly as "tricky" as people want to make it. Yes, there's overla
p, as when a rare book becomes an "artifact" or an art object, not "just" a boo
k. If a history center contains only reproductions, reconstructions, replicas,
it may be a movie set or a "wax museum," but it's not a traditional, standard
museum. A museum library is a library in a museum, which is what Lawrence Hyma
n is in, and I can't imagine why he's having trouble figuring that out.
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