I'm a winner ....

I'm a winner in the "foundlove" contest!!

http://library.sdsu.edu/foundlove

Did you find love in Love Library? | Library & information Access | San Diego State University

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Name: Melanie (nee May )Thompson

Story: I fell in love in the Love Library during my undergrad years. I fell in love with words. I worked at the Love Library from 1975-1978, my sophomore through senior year. My job was typing headings on and filing the 3 x 5 cards for the card catalog.  You newest grads won't know what that means. We didn't have computers-for-all then. We had drawers and drawers and drawers-- long, heavy drawers filled with 3 x 5 inch file cards so people could look up books by author, title or subject. Under the tutelage of Librarian Bill Pease and my mentor Amy Tsuji, I would type the SUBJECT or AUTHOR or TITLE at the top of a set of catalog cards. The lowest floor of the library had a book repair area, receiving area , cataloging area,  a complex, organized method of coping the cards, sorting, correcting, proofreading the cards. And then, SHOW TIME: the cards had to go upstairs on display for the public.  I became so proficient (this is MY memory) at learning articles (A, an, the, Der, Die and Das, El, La, etc.) in SO MANY languages, that I was the "chosen one" to file catalog cards upstairs in the drawers for the public.  (You ignore articles when you're filing a title--it's complicated.)  I would look up words unbeknowst to me in the OED.. (Oxford English Dictionary)-- the behemoth volumes of dictionary that took many square feet of "Reference Area" just to house the great tomes on multiple pedestal wooden stands. I LOVED not making popcorn at the local theater anymore. I LOVED the people I worked with. I LOVED learning about learning and access to the floors and floors of book, the endless periodicals..... it was a nerd's paradise.... and I was a nerd and I learned life-skills that have helped me in crossword puzzles, in Peace Corps, in medical school, in motherhood, in book club.....And right this very minute, I can play Scrabble  on line with my kids and I'm kicking my friend's LEXULOUS bottom, I look up every word I don't know in my books and magazines and I keep my important things to do on nostalgic 3 x 5 inch cards.... My children will quote me as saying, "Books are our friends." Thanks SDSU. Thanks Love Library.