Friends of the Libraries' Guest Columnist Features Athens is a book-friendly sort of town By Sheppard Black July 9, 2005 The Athens Messenger

As a matter of fact, I don't have an armchair, but the kitchen table will do. A home town, perhaps, is less a place of birth than a place where one has been most active, built a career and rewarding friendships. So, transplants though we are, my wife and I remain Athenians, and happy to be so. And during our half century tenure here, there have been changes, lots of changes.

Today, books and reading thrive in our home town. We are well served by bookstores; it was not always so. In Athens we enjoy a handsome public library with a competent and gracious staff, and that library is in the midst of a major expansion. The reach of the Athens County library system, which is based in Nelsonville, extends beyond the Athens branch to branch libraries in Albany, Chauncey, Coolville, Glouster and The Plains. The Plains branch library also offers a remarkable service for the visually impaired.

At Ohio University, the Vernon R. Alden Library serves students, faculty, staff, and the public as well. Change and growth have taken place there, too. The second floor, wholly re-imagined, has become the Learning Commons, and this is but one of the more changes to follow.

But now to that area of the library most familiar to me, the Department of Archives and Special Collections. As the title suggests, the department has multiple charges: archival materials such as local government records, university records, and manuscript material. In this category fall those printed materials of interest to genealogical researchers. I am told that the Internet has greatly lessened dependence upon printed materials for genealogical research, but again, it was not always so. As a retiree I hope I may be forgiven for making mention of a friend and former colleague, Karen Jones. She has served genealogical researchers from, I'd guess, all fifty states, and always with grace. Karen was the best work place buddy a fellow ever had.

Special Collections, for the most part, houses the several rare book collections. These are the province of Judy Connick, another good buddy and the very competent Special Collections Librarian. The collections are wonderfully varied, including examples of early printing, artists' books, and a growing collection of student-made books. Of interest, too, is a large collection of incunable leaves, that is, pages printed during the period from 1450 to 1500 A.D. These materials, by reason of their rarity, do not circulate, but all are available for examination in the department.

It would seem obvious, would it not, that our home town is a good home both for books and book people?

Sheppard Black is a retired Ohio University Special Collections Librarian.