Good Morning, Oppo

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn) 04/10/2018 at 09:15 • Filed to: good morning oppo

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As an armchair historian, this photo makes me feel all funny inside. This is the old Main Library in Cincinnati, built in 1874 and demolished in 1955.

More photos of the library !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

vondon302 > ttyymmnn 04/10/2018 at 09:30

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Now that’s a stack.

ttyymmnn > vondon302 04/10/2018 at 09:31

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If anybody ever wondered where the term “stacks” came from....

Ash78, voting early and often > ttyymmnn 04/10/2018 at 10:10

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Stack overflow error!

cbell04 > ttyymmnn 04/10/2018 at 10:13

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I love how the railing is just low enough to trip you rather than stop you from going over. What a cool picture thanks for the share.

ttyymmnn > cbell04 04/10/2018 at 10:18

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I hadn’t noticed that. Yikes.

WilliamsSW > ttyymmnn 04/10/2018 at 10:32

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Reminds me of my days at the University of Illinois. The main library was always referred to as the Stacks- and getting access was pretty damn hard:

https://www.library.illinois.edu/borrowing/main-stacks-access/

ttyymmnn > WilliamsSW 04/10/2018 at 10:34

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When I was working on my dissertation, I still used a card catalog. Those are loooong gone now.

wafflesnfalafel > ttyymmnn 04/10/2018 at 10:54

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I spent many hours in this library in college - Suzzallo on the main UW campus. Really a cathedral of learning..

ttyymmnn > wafflesnfalafel 04/10/2018 at 11:03

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Are you sure that isn’t Hogwarts?

ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com > ttyymmnn 04/10/2018 at 11:03

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Sadly, my stacks at work aren’t nearly as grand as those are.

ttyymmnn > ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com 04/10/2018 at 11:08

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There was a time when public spaces were created as works of art in the tradition of the Greeks and Romans. Later, they became strictly utilitarian. And boring.

ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com > ttyymmnn 04/10/2018 at 11:17

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Actually, we still maintain a physical card catalog for the special collections (rare books) part of our department. It serves as a permanent backup to the electronic catalog, and we also use the reverse of the card as the decision record for the item (the reason why the book was selected for special collections and/or where we got it). The physical card is also the place where the barcode for the item is kept. For preservation reasons, we don’t stick anything or permanently mark our materials (the bar code number and call number is written into one of the flyleaves in pencil, and a cloth tag is laid in the book with the call number attached). That said, special collections is non-circulating collection which folks come to our reading room to use, so we’re not using the card catalog as a circulation record or anything like that.

ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com > ttyymmnn 04/10/2018 at 11:35

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Libraries were also once social hubs of universities, and as such once had 50% plus of their floor space dedicated to things other than stacks. These days most academic research libraries now have 75% plus of the floor space dedicated to stacks, which creates floor loading problems in older buildings. Nobody ever thought these buildings would literally end up filled with books (and papers). My 1950's building is now physically arranged not in away that maximizes use of stacks space, but in away that the structural engineers tells us is less likely to collapse the building.

About seven or eight years ago, some university maintenance folks noticed some strange bowing of concrete beams. That led to structural engineers, core samples taken from all over this concrete building, massive weeding projects of circulating collections to reduce their size and a years long shifting project to rearrange the two buildings that make up the university library.

ttyymmnn > ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com 04/10/2018 at 12:15

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Where do you work?

ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com > ttyymmnn 04/10/2018 at 12:39

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I work in the archives and special collections department of the university library.  I do archival processing of political papers. Although I’ve never made it hard to figure out who I am on oppo, I’d rather not completely dox myself by naming the university...

ttyymmnn > ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com 04/10/2018 at 13:47

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No worries. I’m just curious. I spent many hours in the library working on my dissertation.