Recently, Silverfish staffers found a box full of archived issues of the Silverfish, neé The Sojourner, dating to as far back as the late 1970’s. Many of these issues are quite revealing of the climate of the school through the ages, and many are quite funny besides. This news item ran in a 1983 issue. It begins with, “The Library Student Association has voted to prohibit smoking in the Student Lounge during the lunch hour (11:30 – 2:00pm).”
Today, of course, the idea of smoking in a school lounge or classroom – which at the time were housed in Suzzallo library – is unthinkable. Further investigation of the archives reveals that the smoking in the student lounge discussion was actually ongoing, however, with several votes before smoking was banned altogether.
Stay tuned for more pieces of library school history.
-- Phoebe Ayers