I get a kick out of seeing some of the really old stuff at the Tufts library. There’s something about the permanence of these objects; they’ve been hanging out on this planet for longer than me and will probably continue to do so. Tufts weekly issues from 1943, scientific journals from the 60s. I saw a few journals that had lost their bindings and were shelved with just twine holding them together, like a gift from the past.
Last weekend I wanted to pick up some books on signal processing and time series analysis, and I dragged Kristi along with me so that we could get some groceries while we were out. While I scanned the math books the find the easiest to understand, she happened upon a book called Great American Liberals, edited by Gabriel Mason and published in 1956. The most fascinating thing for me about this book is how infrequently it has been checked out of the library. The due dates are:
July 7 1959
December 3 1971
March 13 1988
April 17 2008
At this declining rate of readership, the next time it leaves the library will be in 23-25 years!