When I first read about “The Library of Babel” by Jorge Luis Borges (http://jubal.westnet.com/hyperdiscordia/library_of_babel.html) I had no idea what he was trying to get at. However, after reading it about 6 times I started to understand it more and more. What I started to understand from the reading was that, Borges has a universe that is constructed as a different rooms shaped has hexagons. In each of those rooms there are four walls of bookshelves. Those bookshelves symbolize necessities for human survival. In the books located on the shelves is every possible ordering of characters, letters, spaces, etc. It said that all the books in the library must contain all useful information, and it must be translated in all languages. Thus making all books readable with a number of different contents.

The only way I can relate this back to multimedia is referencing it to the Internet. There are so many outlets that are geared form just one website in which we are able to obtain information. Not only the Internet but the various ways we are able to get information and receive information these days. Relating that back to the reading, I feel as though we have so much around us that we technically can’t understand how much we have at our disposable.

There are so many things the Internet teaches us to do, that we would never know how to do without these resources offered to us. For example, I’d never know how to install something without the help of Google. That is always my number one “go-to”. Google offers so much without us even realizing how dependent we are on these “bookshelves” also known as, “necessities for survival” according to Borges. After taking it into perspective, I started to think about all of the necessities in my life and what I would consider a bookshelf today. I can easily name three things: cell phone (smart phone), computer, internet. Without these three bookshelves in my life I wouldn’t be able to access as much, learn as much, and educate myself enough not only for school, but in life as well. I guess Borges just puts it in a different perspective with a library, books, bookshelves, and content.