Museums are places in which we seek inspiration from visual images or natural history. Baseball diamonds, football fields, and basketball courts are arenas that throb with our love for action and sport. Botanical and zoological gardens flourish because of our instinct to protect, house, and study our natural world. Even shopping malls are monuments, monuments that reflect our passion for consumerism. Each of these monuments has a special role in our culture.
Libraries are very special monuments.
The library is absolutely fundamental to civilization and fundamental to our American culture. Our knowledge of prior civilizations is largely the result of the preservation of the written record by libraries. Historically, we've used libraries to preserve what is important and what is original, what is good and what is not so good. Libraries are the single cultural institution that cross barriers of race and religion and that have no boundaries. Thus it is especially fitting that UTK's Alumni Academic Hall of Fame be located in the beautiful and functional John C. Hodges Library.