The Quantum Archivist

Miller Library, Colby College

For the past 10 years or so, coffee bars in libraries has been the hot topic, especially in academic libraries. Right now, we are in the design phase of renovating the main library here and the question of where to put the coffee bar is, as you might expect one of the topics that is drawing a lot of interest and scrutiny.

This brings me back to my experience as an undergraduate at Colby College in the late 19..s, well, let’s just say a lot longer ago than I care to remember. At the old Miller Library, right there in the building itself, was what was known simply as “The Spa.” The Spa was a full blown restaurant, run by two brothers, John and Peter Joseph, who extended credit to Colby students, served such marvelous fare as the “Colby 8,”  a cheeseburger dripping with grease and topped with a fried egg. I don’t remember what it cost, what, something like 85 cents?  (Hey any Colby alums out there who can help refresh my memory on this?) Anyway, they were open what seemed like every minute of the day and night, and you didn’t have to put on your shoes, or brave the brutal Mayflower Hill winter cold to take a study break and hang out with some friends and enjoy what we would now call “group study.”  The Spa had been in the library for decades by the time I got there and I never thought it was odd to have coffee, food, and drinks in the Library until I started working at other libraries.

So, now that the craze of putting coffee shops and casual meeting spaces in academic libraries is going full tilt, I warmly remember The Spa, and how it helped create a sense of community and belonging for a kid from New Jersey who had never been away from home before.

P.S. When someone paid their Spa bill, the Josephs would ring a ship’s bell and shout that someone had paid their spa bill and the place would erupt in cheers. Rumor had it that if you didn’t pay your Spa bill, the college would withhold your diploma. I don’t know if that was true, since no one ever cared to test it. It would have been like stealing from your family.

P.P.S. When they renovated the library in the 1980s, they moved the Spa out of the Library. Truly sad. I don’t know if future renovations have restored coffee to the library, I hope so.

This is the obligatory introduction post, where I explain why I feel the need to add another voice to the already crowded blogosphere. I talk to a lot of people every day about archives and digital object managment and presentation, and often I think those conversations are worthy of remembering, and that people who weren’t in the room may be interested in hearing about them.

Mostly we talk about “what if.”  For example, “What if we discarded the idea of series in archival description and aggregated like content using attributes instead?”  Not all of the conversations have merit as viable ideas, but I like to think they raise questions about what we do and why we do it.

The next few posts will explain why this blog is called the Quantum Archivist, and what I mean by Quantum Archives Space.

So, there you go. I’m inviting everyone to listen in, and please, feel free to add to the conversation,  and most of all, enjoy.