I have been working at MedChi for almost 11 years, and one thing that I rarely do is to venture into the basement. It's cold and a wee bit damp, and honestly, it's just plain scary. But I have a new intern who was curious to see the basement, so we ventured down there this afternoon.
The last time I was down in the basement stacks, most of the lights didn't work, but luckily, that's been remedied. So as we poked through the rows of books, we were able to see what was there.
Many of the books were in German or Latin. And most of them were either late 1800s or early 1900s. I found several copies of Schmidt's Jahrbücher Der Gesammten Medizin from the early 1900s.
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It's always fascinating to see what's in our collections, and where it's hidden!
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Hello Meg, It is so cool to explore the distant parts either of a building or a collection. Who knows what you might encounter? In college I often explored the stacks of the library, and always came back with some prize. You mentioned dampness--I assume your basement is properly monitored for humidity, as water in any form is a great enemy of books.
ReplyDelete--Jim
There was an unknown leak down there for a while, but that's been remediated!
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