There is going to be a birthday party: games, sweets and the requisite speech about how much the honoree has changed over the years.
But this party won’t involve the guest of honor blowing out a couple dozen flaming candles. And instead of a Birthday Boy or Girl, there is a Birthday Building: Meyer Library is turning 40.
The open-house-style event will be held from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on December 1. Mimi Calter, the executive assistant to the University librarian, admits it is “pretty unusual” to hold a party for a library. “We are doing it because we have heard from a lot of alums who have a lot of fond memories of Meyer.”
Certainly Meyer has changed tremendously since it was known as the Undergraduate Library (UGLI). In the early days, it was a haven for undergraduates hitting the books—and quite a social center. Today it houses academic computing and the East Asia collection. When it was born, the library was progressive for not having a card catalog. (It kept track of books on a primitive database and printed out listings on reams of punch-holed computer paper.) Now dozens of sleek computers, each many times more powerful than the one that ran that database, line desk after desk.
A speech by Stewart Brand, ’60, about his book How Buildings Learn and a paper-airplane contest are expected to be two highlights of the birthday celebration. The latter pays homage to the days when students used to toss paper planes (and other things) down the three-story open stairwell.
Alumni with memories of the library are encouraged to share them here.
