We are making progress on the music pocket library and museum! Last week, the glass walls that will separate the music pocket library and museum from the main lobby arrived. They are currently being installed. The glass walls will help the new spaces feel open and welcoming. We also received the bookshelves and carts for our vinyl records for the music pocket library. It's a little messy in that part of the library right now, but we are happy to have so much activity happening! The walls have to go up first, and then we will move the books into the new space.
We also have a new display in the library of our vintage paperback books from Special Collections & Archives. These are primarily Penguin Books and Pelican Books, which were major imprints in the mid-20th century. Penguin Books were first published in 1935, and due to their attractive covers, affordability, and high-quality fiction stories, they soon became very popular among readers. The first Penguin books, published in Great Britain, cost only sixpence, and they could be purchased at high street department stores (sort of like downtown department stores in the U.S.). Pelican Books was Penguin's nonfiction counterpart. We see many classic titles in our collection: The Great Gatsby, Showboat, Porgy, Walden...Penguin's founder, Sir Allen Lane, wanted to make great literature easily affordable in paperback form, and he most certainly succeeded.
