{"id":153191,"date":"2023-04-11T15:10:29","date_gmt":"2023-04-11T13:10:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=153191"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:26:44","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:26:44","slug":"this-librarian-does-love-reading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2023\/04\/11\/this-librarian-does-love-reading\/","title":{"rendered":"This librarian does<\/em> love reading"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to Roman Koot, sometimes librarians like lists more than reading. But this certainly doesn\u2019t apply to him. He reads out of curiosity. For him, the book If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller <\/em>by Italo Calvino<\/a> confirmed that good literature is determined by the writer’s imagination.<\/p>\n

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Roman Koot, librarian of Rotterdamsch Leeskabinet.<\/span><\/p>

\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRonald van den Heerik<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Roman Koot, now librarian of the Rotterdamsch Leeskabinet<\/em>, was determined to study history when he was in the fifth year of secondary school in Tilburg, but his teacher in the final year of his studies put a stop to that. \u201cI just couldn\u2019t get along with the teacher and he couldn\u2019t get along with me. I have to admit that the man certainly made sure I didn\u2019t study history.\u201d Koot immediately puts the influence of his history teacher into perspective: \u201cOf course, there wasn\u2019t a single reason for that choice. I would rather have spent a year travelling. But that wasn\u2019t really what people did back then.\u201d<\/p>\n

During that time, Koot read three books a week. And he can prove it, too. In his diary, he recorded exactly which books they were. Koot belonged to \u2018that group of people\u2019 who had read everything in the youth section of the library early on. With special permission, he was granted access to the adult section. The library academy was a logical choice for him after grammar school.<\/p>\n\t

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Reading habits<\/strong><\/p>\n

Number of book per year: \u201cLast year, I read about 40 books.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last book read: Companion Piece <\/em>by Ali Smith.<\/a>\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s a fascinating book. As a reader, you need to stay on your toes. I can’t always follow the main character’s motives right away. I like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Favourite genre: \u201cI don’t think in terms of genres. I don’t know what genre lots of books fit into. I look out for books that get me to read something I don’t know yet. That takes me more towards the psychological novel, although I hate navel-gazing writers. As an art historian, I studied the period between the First and Second World Wars. Writers from that period revive history in their own unique way through their books.\u201d<\/p>\n

Primary motivation: \u201cOn the website of the Rotterdamsch Leeskabinet, I summarised it in one sentence: \u2018I look for literature and art that challenges and provides a different perspective on life and the world.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t<\/div>\n

Reading lists<\/h2>

At the library academy, he saw that some librarians like lists \u2013 of the most important titles or most influential writers, for example \u2013 more than reading. Koot also finds lists enjoyable and useful, \u2018but it is initially the curiosity about a book that prompts me to read and that led me towards becoming a librarian\u2019. At the academy, he found a deeper understanding of art history, literary studies and a teacher of English and American literature who made the students listen to Bob Dylan\u2019s records for the lyrics, long before Dylan received the Nobel Prize for Literature.<\/p>\n

In his early twenties, Koot became a librarian at the art academy in Den Bosch. After graduating, he went with a friend to use the photocopier at the library academy. \u201cIt was free there.\u201d When the director saw them, Koot thought they had been caught in the act, but instead he asked them to apply to the art academy to replace a sick librarian. Both boys applied, and Koot got the job.<\/p>\n

The library as an enclave <\/h2>

It was the early eighties and conceptual art was just making its entrance into the art academy. This suited Koot well: \u201cI thought art should involve more than just a good reproduction on canvas.\u201d The library also had a special function within the organisation. \u201cToday\u2019s MeToo complaints were very much the order of the day back then. Lecturers entered into relationships with students or addressed them harshly in front of the class for not experimenting enough, or too much. The library was an enclave for students, a refuge.\u201d At that point, the internet had not yet come along. Students got their information from the library\u2019s books or from Koot\u2019s own videotapes of art documentaries.<\/p>\n

If on a Winter's Night a Traveller<\/h2>

In 1986, Koot bought the book If on a Winter\u2019s Night a Traveller<\/em> by Italo Calvino. \u201cThe book addresses the reader directly.\u201d Koot opens the book and reads out the first sentence: \u201cYou are about to begin reading Italo Calvino\u2019s new novel, If on a winter\u2019s night a traveller.\u201d That sentence is already a strange alienation technique, according to Koot. \u201cI almost begin to remember that when I first read this sentence, I thought: I won\u2019t be here for the next few hours.\u201d The book is experimental and contains stories that are unfinished. Between the stories, it discusses reading and writing, language and the way in which literature is created. \u201cThis book confirmed the idea that it is the writer\u2019s imagination that determines good literature. And of course, it also has to be well written!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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\n\t\t\u2018Literature helps us to identify with others and also to understand ourselves\u2019\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

And imagination is exactly what literature is all about for Koot, he says during the conversation. Literature also plays the additional role of giving us new perspectives on life and the world. Later, he emailed a quote from Renate Dorrestein: \u201cLiterature brings us something that psychology cannot do, sociology cannot do, journalism cannot do: the ability to see inside the characters\u2019 heads, to become part of their dilemmas and, in doing so, to step into their shoes. Literature helps us to identify with others and also to understand ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Art) historian <\/h2>

Koot has read many books since then. His curiosity has not diminished as a result. He is a reader and has known all his life that he is a reader, not a writer. Even at the art academy, he never dreamed of becoming an artist. \u201cDon\u2019t put a brush in my hand. I\u2019ve always enjoyed understanding and articulating what an artist is doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

This led him to study art history in the evenings when he worked at the art academy. This was followed by jobs at the Centraal Museum and the RKD \u2013 Netherlands Institute for Art History. For a long time, this allowed him to express his fascination with how the world works and which traces play a role in it. In his own words, it is the history side of being an art historian that is most important. \u201cOf course, I should have studied history in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the heritage collection of the Rotterdamsch Leeskabinet, history is never far away. As a librarian, Koot buys all the non-fiction books for the library but keeps his personal preferences for his leisure time. \u201cI can\u2019t buy a book and then borrow it myself before anyone else. The books at the Rotterdamsch Leeskabinet are for the members.\u201d<\/p>\n\t

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The Rotterdamsch Leeskabinet is located in the University Library and has a large heritage collection, plus current fiction and titles in the areas of history, art, philosophy and many other subjects. Roman Koot has been librarian at the Rotterdamsch Leeskabinet since 2017. He is also the curator of special collections and academic heritage of the Erasmus University Library. In Leiden, he studied Art History, after which he was a subject specialist at the Literature Library of Utrecht University and head of Library and Archives at the RKD \u2013 Netherlands Institute for Art History.<\/p>\n\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t

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