BPL: The Foundation Of Public Libraries

I enjoyed Catherine Willis’ interview very much. I was a Bates Hall runner in the early 1950s when the tube system was very much in use, It was cranky then and so were the carts which sometimes came off the track. For some reason only boys delivered books to Bates Hall — and I’m afraid it  often took a lot more  than 1o minutes. Girls worked in most of the  stacks but the lowest, and dampest and apparently spookiest one — Stack One — was staffed only with guys. There was also a smoking room on this level that was frequented by cops, for some reason, as well as library workers.Most of the books in stack one were not in much demand, as I recall there were a lot of collections of sermons. One co worker took over one sermon-lined alcove and put in a beer cooler and a cot and entertained female friends, A man named Julian  Moynihan, who had a distinguished career as an academic, worked at central (as we called it)in the rare book room.He wrote a novel  set in a fictitious library but obviously the BPL, and his protagonist had a similar love nest in the stacks.The late, great comedian Fred Allen was also a Stack One veteran.
Bill Davis
bill@davistravels.com