Work on the Massachusetts Room Preservation Project is moving at a swift pace, with the lab preserving over 3,900 items in fiscal year 2011. One of the items that came across my workbench in this time was a series of four reading lists published in 1919 by the library of the Massachusetts Agricultural College at Amherst (now UMass Amherst). Each card is approximately three and a half inches by five inches and includes numerous titles on a given subject. The reading list shown at left is on the topic of sports and recreation. Other topics in the reading list series include flower arranging, gardening and the domestic arts. These reading lists can be found in the Mass. Room under the call number 630.72M3J A27r. In these hazy days of August, I encourage you to heed the words of H. More: The mind ought sometimes to be diverted, that it may return the better to thinking.
Lacy Stoneburner, Preservation Librarian
