Lora Mirza, Associate Professor, Coordinator of Public Services, Dunwoody

Orange Carpeting

Oh, that bright orange library carpeting! Some of the librarians and many of the students and faculty have moved on to other schools and other places, and the library staff has moved across the way at the Dunwoody Campus to the beautiful new LRC. Today the second floor of Building B at Dunwoody no longer houses the library collection, where students gathered and studied, while on special occasions the music of rock bands reverberated from the student center on the floor below. Students came early in the semester to do research and faculty came at the end of the semester to check to be sure students were not plagiarizing from that research. The library ceiling sometimes leaked; the air conditioning sometimes spewed forth dripping moisture from the receptacles on the roof; the sun came in through the windows making the peace lilies bloom in profusion with that unmistakable odor when in flower. But we will always remember that remarkable orange carpeting, indestructible as it was, and still is, up there on the second floor of Building B.

The towering bookcases could not crush it as students carried on secret discussions in the stacks, and the library staff could not destroy it as they pulled portable display stands of board over it and arranged exhibits and books on top of it, and when the roof leaked, furniture might get worn or discolored but that orange carpeting emerged unscathed. Occasionally we took scissors to cut out a snag or string from the carpet to prevent people catching their shoes in it. But the carpet never unraveled entirely despite the book carts, shoes, and equipment that went over it.

When the beautiful New LRC was completed in the spring of 2002, recently retired Library Director Elizabeth Turner remarked, “All I asked for was new carpeting--and we got a brand new LRC.” We love our new library. But we also have warm memories of the first library on our campus, and beginning with day one, that indestructible bright orange library carpeting.