 From Bombs
to Books
During the Cold War, one of the Soviet Union’s primary
targets would have been Amherst, Mass. The Russians had nuclear missiles aimed
at the
town
not
because they hated higher education,
but because a bunker on the side of
the Holyoke Range housed a backup
command center for the Strategic Air Command in Omaha. If the central base
at Omaha had been destroyed, control of nuclear war would have switched to
Amherst. You can see that dark history today in the rusted warning signs at
the bunker’s gates, the massive concrete and lead walls and ceilings
built into the mountainside, and the now-vacant control room with signs that
say “Senior Battle
Staff Only.”
Because of the bunker’s ominous background, its current use is all the
more striking: it is owned by Amherst College and, since 1994, has been filled
with books from Frost
Library. Now it is also the depository for books from the other Five Colleges,
which in November began leasing 10,000 square feet of the bunker from Amherst
College. The depository is needed because all of the schools’ libraries
have growing collections of books and limited space in which to store them.
Remodeling the bunker was much cheaper than building additions to the libraries,
says Will Bridegam, librarian of the college and the mastermind behind the
purchase and conversion of the bunker.
Originally the bunker was intended for Amherst alone, an idea that came about
because the college had too many pressing priorities at the time and couldn’t
justify the expense of a new library building. “As we were planning for
it,” Bridegam says, “it occurred to me that what’s good for
Amherst would be good for the other four institutions in the valley. I checked
with my colleagues at the other schools, and they said yes, they could use
that kind of facility, too.” The schools then pursued grant money to
develop and run the depository. The Mellon Foundation provided a major grant
to start the project, with subsequent support from the Davis Educational Trust
and the Arthur Vining Davis Foundation. “This is extraordinary,” Bridegam
says. “These three foundations are willing to support us in this, although
other libraries had not been terribly successful in interesting the foundations.
We found that what interested the foundations most was that the colleges were
willing to relinquish ownership of their books, that they could own these things
in common. As far as I know this is the only example
of this in the country.”
The Five College space is in a separate section of the bunker from the Amherst
depository and features an unusual system for maximizing book storage. The
books—mostly serials and government documents that are least often requested
from the
libraries—are not stored by call number
or the Dewey Decimal System (which was invented by Melvil Dewey, Class of 1874).
They are not sorted by subject. Rather, the books are sorted by size, with
each shelf holding only books of the same height. And the books are not shelved
spine out, but in long cardboard trays, packed in whatever direction most efficiently
fills the space. The trays, in turn, are shelved end out, and each is given
a distinctive code that’s entered into the depository computer. Because
it is impossible for anyone to find a given book without knowledge of the computer
codes, users are not allowed into the depository but must instead request the
books through their library. To further save space, the bookcases are
motorized and ride on tracks to minimize aisles. According to David Spoolstra,
the
librarian for the Five College depository, the unusual storage system allows
the
depository to hold twice as many books
as conventional library systems. He also notes that the bunker has the added
benefit of having floors that can hold 500 pounds per square foot. It has the
additional benefit of offering bomb-proof protection for the books, as well
as constant temperature and humidity.
As of January, Mount Holyoke, the University of Massachusetts and Amherst had
delivered books to the depository. Smith and Hampshire Colleges planned to
follow suit through the spring. Spoolstra says it will take several years to
fill the space.
Next: Prof.
Dudley Towne >>
Illustration: Bonnie Timmons/gettyimages
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