New Beginnings

Libraries should be fun. They should have interesting resources, a helpful and knowledgeable staff, programming to showcase their treasures, and lots of ways to access the information contained within them. A library should spark something in the imagination of everyone it touches.

There's a lot going on at the AAC Library this year. With the addition of new staff member Beth Heller, we've begun working on a timeline for the construction of Nick Clinch Central Asian Library. This is a unique collection of 30,000 books that has concentration on all aspects of Central Asia, but also has excellent coverage of all of the world's mountainous regions.

AAC Development Director Cheryle Wise has been instrumental in helping us implement a quarterly library programming series. We'll begin on May 15 with a presentation called "The Art of the Book: Publisher Bookbinding", conducted by our Preservation Librarian, Beth Heller. Beth will draw from her background as a paper and book conservator and to give us a short history of bookbinding and show us some of the interesting bindings we have in our own collection. Admission is free for Friends of the Library and $10.00 for non-members.

The library is going digital! Library volunteer Alex Bittenbinder has been working for several months on procedures to digitize the thousands of historic photographs in the Library's collection. Alex has been working specifically on the Lt. Nawang Kapadia Himalaya Collection, a collection of about 1,300 35mm slides taken and donated by the prominent Indian mountaineer, Harish Kapadia. Once the images are scanned and made available on the web, the collection will be a valuable resource for anyone interested in exploring the Himalaya.

We were thrilled to be a part of the grand opening for the Bradford Washburn American Mountaineering Museum (BWAMM) in February. We are working with the BWAMM staff to integrate the museum's collections with those of the library. Our hope is to raise enough money to purchase a new online catalog that will allow us to incorporate the museum's three-dimensional artifacts with the library's books, DVDs, and archives into a single system.

And all of this is in addition to all of the services the Library has always offered. We have a lot of hard work ahead of us and we need your help. Please consider becoming a Friend of the Library or check our website for more details.

-Gary Landeck