Students expect to be able to check out books from the Peabody Library, but if they take a right turn out of the lobby, walk up the spiral staircase, pass the orange and red jewel-toned ceiling window and make a U-turn, they will find themselves in the Curriculum Materials Center and Youth Collection.
This is where students will find the parachutes kindergartners play with in gym classes, Chutes and Ladders board games, a mini solar system and hand puppets – all available for any undergraduate or graduate student, faculty member or alumni to check out.
Of course, Lara Beth Lehman, the Curriculum Materials Center manager, said, these items are meant to be used by students who are studying education and need hands-on tools for the children they may be working with.
But the Peabody Library is home to tools that could be useful to any undergraduate, Lehman said. There is a library of computers installed with statistical analysis software, a room of die cutters for scrapbooking and card making, global positioning systems and flip cameras available to be checked out, overstuffed chairs for studying, a mini La Provence Bakery & Bistro in the basement and of course, those puppets.
“Our number one priority is customer service,” Lehman said. “Even if you don’t need us, we’ve got cozy study spaces and want you here.”
The library finished some renovations in 2005, but before the renovations were ever considered, the library was in such bad shape, the university considered tearing it down, Lehman said.
Even mentioning the thought that the library might not be here today, brought a look of disbelief onto Lehman’s face, as she placed her hand on her chest. She said the library is always filled and always busy now.
“It blows my mind the process this building has been under in the last decade,” she said.
But there are still signs of decades past everywhere in the library: the original 1918 columns that square the library lobby with ornamental books carved out of marble at the top of each column, that jewel-toned ceiling window and the stacks library that hasn’t changed at all since 1918, Lehman said.
Whether students find themselves in need of an old book from the stacks or a new secondary education social studies curriculum guide, the popularity and use the library keeps increasing every year, Lehman said.
“We’re always trying to build more awareness, and a lot more outreach. Please come and check us out. We’re just happy to have new folks come in.”
