Historical May 1980 report or notice. Original dates, prices and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
The thinly veiled scare tactics of last month’s article have been obviously ineffective. We still sit in the library lonely and bored, surrounded by thousands of books begging to be checked out. Maybe the approach was wrong. Instead of an appeal to your interest in the stability of neighborhood institutions, we should have made one for your sympathy. Everyone knows that libraries buy popular reading material. Donahue, Jack Carney, the press and the advertising industry all make sure of that. Everyone also knows that libraries must stock religious books, classics, cookbooks, biographies, etiquette books, etc., because someday somebody might ask for them. Many of these are shelf sitters. Because they are highly specialized or highly boring, no one touches them except the custodian when he dusts. How would you like to sit in the same spot on a hard board, coldly rejected by over fifty people every day, six days a week, for years? Your color fades, your spine and spirits droop, your content, while valuable, goes unrecognized. Just as the Post-Dispatch pushes the Humane Society’s puppy orphans, we’d like to bring our outcasts to your attention, though without the aid of photographs: Take Fiber to Fabric, for example.
Please take it. Twenty-four centimeters high, with a tasteful black cover and sturdy binding, this twenty-one year old book explains in painfully clear detail why lappet ornamentation is permanent and swivel is not, and what puts the crinkle in seersucker.
It has only been out twice. Ornamental Alphabets has been with us almost constantly since 1963.
It contains over 100 complete alphabets to fit every mood. Fur Scarves, Royal Palm, and Mambo Madness are some of the more original ones. We apologize for the fact that a few of the alphabets may be in poor taste.
So—come to the library and do some real bibliotherapy by taking home a book that nobody else wants.
It will do your heart good and our circulation even better.
Original photograph caption
Original book illustration. The Paper, May 1980, page 12. Artist not credited.
Originally published in The Paper, May 1980.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1980_05.pdf, printed page(s) 12; PDF page(s) 12.
