Carolina Alumni Review - March/April 2009

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Library Memories

As a first edition of Keats’ Poems was officially dedicated late last year as the 6 millionth volume in UNC’s library collection, we asked alumni to share their memories of Carolina’s libraries. Excerpts of some of the responses are below. Read more at

alumni.unc.edu/libraries.

“In 1946, the campus was getting a little cramped with a deluge of WWII veterans, a more mature group, maybe a little rowdy, but always interesting. My roommate was no exception — a Navy vet, an extraordinary student, but his claim to fame from military days was the beer-drinking championship of his ship. And 1946 predated by generations any notion of ‘political correctness.’ On a Saturday evening when he would usually be headed to Franklin Street, roommate announced he was headed to the library for serious study. I trailed along while he gathered books — and a bottle of whiskey to sustain his study hours. We chose a vacant table in the Reserve Reading Room, where he deposited a pile of books and the bottle. He took a seat, poured a drink in a paper cup he had brought along, opened a book, leaned back and placed both feet on the well-polished table. In this position he proceeded to sip and study until a librarian approached. She leaned over and in an audible whisper addressed the studying form: ‘Mr. … , please remove your feet from the table.’ He took another drink, thanked her, assumed an upright posture and continued to study.”

King White ’ 50

Muskogee, Okla.

graduate library. The librarian was a gentle scholar, recorder player and handpress printer named William Pease. I reported directly to Florence “Flossie” Stuhlman, one of the University’s great characters. She was a dear lady and treated all her assistants like her children. … Once you had established that you were trustworthy, the job carried with it access to the stacks. I routinely went home to Ehringhaus with both panniers on my bicycle filled with books, read them all and returned them the next day for another load.”

Lawrence Richard Parsons ’ 67

Raleigh/New Bern

1967 YACKET Y YACK

Carolina’s libraries have served students in many ways over the years. Of course, they’ve been places for deep research, discovery and quiet studying. But they’ve also been places to meet friends and even blow off a little steam during final exams.

changed, “Four Years, Forty Years Ago,” appeared in the January/February 2008 Review and is available online to GAA members.

“It was 1978. My parents, both Carolina alumni, were in town for a football game. They were in the Rams Club while I was an undergrad. We were walking past the library on our way to Kenan when my mother gave me a piece of advice that I have never forgotten. A guy was walking up the stairs to the library with a load of books. My mother said to me, ‘Don’t let that ever be you, going to the library on the day of the biggest football game of the year! There is more to college than just books!’At the time, I took her advice a little too much to heart.”

Katherine C. Cole ’ 79

Virginia Beach, Va.

“I graduated at a small county school where our library was one wall of a combined classroom and study hall. The Wilson Library was the most fascinating and beautiful building on the UNC campus. I worked part time, but [spent] many hours just reading and browsing the book collections — more pleasure than athletic events. It was a haven for study, but I fear I spent so much time exploring collections that I may have neglected required studies.”

William Bainster Wood ’ 53

Greensboro

“Ha. I think all freshmen of my era and before shared a similar experience. My first venture into the stacks of the old Louis Round Wilson Library was more like exploring ancient catacombs than it was a research mission. I was fascinated by endless rows of books. But what stands out most of all was sitting down to browse a select few that looked particularly old. I remember blowing dust off the top edges of pages and thinking how cool that was. And I remember looking at the list of students on the sign-out cards and realizing that some books were last checked out many years earlier.Very cool stuff.”

Barry Levin ’ 70

Atlanta

“In 1963, when a freshman, I was fortunate to get a job as a library assistant in the under-

“My memory of the library was that it was the place we could go only once during the week because of ‘closed study.’ If you are a female and you entered UNC after 1967 (or if you are a male!), you don’t even know what ‘closed study’ was because we marched against Dean Carmichael protesting the unfairness of the practice.”

Lee Hollingsworth Berger ’ 71

Franklin

An article about what conditions were like for women on campus before 1972 and how they

“I was in the MBA program, cramming for finals in the undergrad library. As I sat there on the first floor, just behind the center stairway, I heard a commotion by the front doors. I guess a few students had already finished finals, because about a dozen coeds came streaking through the room wearing only lacrosse helmets and shoes, did a lap around the staircase and exited the library one final time. It was a good study break.”