RT Carr, a longtime SULAIR employee, has some great memories of the building.

I was here 20 years ago, before the Media and Loan was placed downstairs and we had vending machines in the lobby. Really disgusting hot chicken soup, the kind Grandmas used to make before she learned about personal hygiene. The 'Coffee' would have made moonbeans customers suicidal. You could dispense it 'light' (They always avoided the term 'cream'. Tepid Pepsi in cups, and prehistoric candy bars...my favorite was The peanut butter cracker/cookies. They were about 1000 years old. This is exaggerated...about 6 months out of date for sure. I was at Green in those days and Meyer lobby was often our breakroom.

There was a choral competition in the lower lobby each spring, and the sound was great!

Thing I miss most is the Library book sales under the eaves facing East. Once after it was over there were 24 boxes left over that we hadn't even opened. The supervisor of the sale said out loud that he had to get rid of the books. What kind of books, I asked? A lot of literature and drama and old film junk her said. I said How much? He said $20. A box? No for the whole lot. I said OK and was digging for my money...he hands me $20 and thanks me for hauling them off!!!!...I still have about half of them!!! No kidding. (Translates to about 800 items taken off that day.)

I also worked there in its last stages as Meyer Library in Reserves near the end of the UGLY library...only 1 floor of books about to wear out completely, you could see the remnants of this lively structure...I avoid the term skeleton! But it was a great time over there...the attitude was purely undergraduate...a little bit loose and flaunting authority. A little not quiet...an undercurrent of iconoclastic energy.

We hope to recapture some of that iconoclastic energy, as well as the spirit of choral competition, at our 40th Anniversary Open House on December 1, 2006. We're planning a paper airplane contest, and several performing groups will be spread throughout the library.