The Desk Set

Partly to escape the August city heat, partly to have a bit of a vacation, and mostly to embark on our library tourism journey, we headed to picturesque Vermont on Tuesday. Thanks to a generous aunt and uncle, we find ourselves comfortably tucked away at the foot of a ski resort in the Green Mountain National Forest where the temperature seems to never rise high enough to make one sweat.

Our adventures began Wednesday with a trip to the Schulz Library at the Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction.

Here’s what we knew about the Schulz Library (from CCS’s website) :

“Thanks to generous donations from publishers, artists, and collectors the world over, our collection is abundant and unique. From our selection of contemporary graphic novels, to our out-of-print and rare collections of gag cartoons and classic newspaper strips, the Schulz Library is a dream come true for the cartoonist bibliophile.”

Ah, the cartoonist bibliophile! What a super rad person. We know a handful who fit that description, and we are major admirers. Of course we wanted to meet a few more, and experience firsthand their “dream come true.”

The Schulz Library is not generally open to the public, but an email explaining who we were and how we thought CCS could fit into our plans received a warm response from James Sturm, founder and director, who agreed to take time out of his busy schedule to show us around. And so we arrived in White River Junction, a tiny town with a slightly urban feel, full of adorable restaurants and clothing shops where Vermont meets New Hampshire and the railroad meets the river.

Sarah outside the Center for Cartoon Studies

The Schulz Library is a few blocks away from the lab, classrooms, and offices of CCS. Housed in an old firehouse right up next to the Main Street Museum (worth another trip to WRJ for sure), the library is totally un-air-conditioned, only somewhat cataloged, and completely and utterly inspiring. James and library intern Caitlin McGurk (of the Palmer School!) shared the library’s treasures with us and filled us in on their ideas of how they’d like to see the library evolve.

Caitlin and James in the library

Some of the categories of books are: Superheroes, Design Reference, Zine Garden, Rare Books, Daily Strips, Collectors Guides, and student work.  Although their budget is tiny, they work creatively and are already growing out of their space! We hope that a crafty, graphic novel-loving librarian arranges a grant so he/she can work at Schulz someday soon.

Student work at the Schulz Library

CCS students are fortunate to have library privileges at Dartmouth College in nearby Hanover, New Hampshire. While the Schulz Library will likely provide them with the best collection possible to support CCS’s curriculum, having access to a comprehensive university library can only make their studies stronger. Perhaps someday a reciprocal relationship would occur in which Dartmouth students (and by extension – at least through Worldcat and Dartmouth’s catalog – the world) could have access to the Schulz collection.

Our visit with James and Caitlin was peppered with sightings of cartoonists, and cartoonists-in-training working up to the last minute in the lab, strolling about the town, or sharing recently published or in-progress work.  The scene was inspiring; we wanted to stay, possibly forever, learn all about cartooning, and become part of this tremendous community. But, as librarians, we are favored with the opportunity to visit many such places, to meet experts in unlimited fields, and to learn – every day – about something new.

Knowing of our interests, James was quick to mention his friend Lucinda Walker who works as head librarian at the public library in Norwich, a Vermont town just a few miles from White River Junction. He encouraged us to visit her, and so after a lunch at the delicious locavore’s Farmer’s Diner in Quechee, we drove to Norwich, one of the sweetest, dreamiest villages we’ve ever seen.

The Norwich Public Library

Lucinda was in, and although it was nearly closing time, she generously showed us around the library and chatted with us about her work, the town, and the library’s new transition to an open-source online catalog. Funding being the same problem in Norwich that it is in all our nation’s libraries, Lucinda found that a badly needed upgrade would be impossible using their vendor. She and six other local Vermont libraries formed a consortium, and collectively decided to make the leap to Koha, free open-source library software from New Zealand. The journey hasn’t been seamless, yet Lucinda was absolutely enthusiastic that it was the right way to go. We were thrilled to see that even in a time of cutbacks, public libraries can thrive, increase circulation, and make important technological leaps.

Maria & Lucinda at the NPL

After a quick stop at Dan & Whit’s General Store (their slogan: “If we don’t have it, you don’t need it”), we headed to the charming Norwich Inn to sample Jasper Murdock’s micro-brewed ales.  They claim to be the smallest brewery in America, only selling their beers on site.

Next we were homeward bound via Woodstock, Vermont, a posh little town full of galleries, specialty shops, historical architecture and gorgeous homes and inns. Of course we had to stop and check out the Norman Williams Library, Woodstock’s big and beautiful public library, built in 1883, on the Green, even though it was closed for the day. This summer the library has included outdoor film festivals, screening classics, as part of their summer programming. How cool! If only NYPL could team up with Bryant Park on their summer film screenings – a good thing could get even better with the help of librarians.

The Norman Williams Library in Woodstock

Since Wednesday, we’ve had tons more adventures – Medieval manuscripts, crashing a writers’ conference, touring a brewery, tracking down a cheese farm, visiting a bizarre castle – we’ll post about all of it shortly. Until then, enjoy this photograph of the Quechee Gorge (a.k.a. “Vermont’s little Grand Canyon”) :

165 feet deep, and over a mile long!