The Secret Shelves
Case X is a collection of books in the Madden Library where students can view rare, fragile or controversial books
Case X contains books that are explicit, older or damaged, and the shelves are not open for students to browse through. Library development officer Colleen Mitchell holds a book that some may find offensive. Photos by Joseph Hollak |
By IRENE RODRIGUEZ
Fresno City College student Deran Atamian was looking for “The Satanic Verses” by Salman Rushdie in the Henry Madden Library catalog one day.
He found the call number for the book and noticed that it was kept in “Case X.”
Atamian went to the front desk and asked the librarian for the book. The librarian disappeared for more than 10 minutes, went upstairs and brought him the controversial book, but he was only allowed to view it within the library.
“I had known about this [Case X] for a while and thought it only contained stacks of old Playboys, but I was quite surprised to learn that it also contains legitimate literature,” Atamian said.
Case X is a collection of books that are not safe on the open shelves, usually because they are rare due to cost or format. Some books, for example, contain loose folios and others come in cardboard or tin boxes. “The Satanic Verses” and a couple of other books are kept there because they have been damaged or stolen on several occasions.
Some Case X books are worn out and kept away. |
There are about 1,300 books in Case X on a variety of subjects, including art, science, underground comics, erotica and human sexuality. Students can even find an encyclopedia of American wood with actual samples and a book on mushrooms that contains a series of stereo photographs.
“It’s a shame that a lot of the books go unused because students don’t get to see them. We have wonderful costume books, for example, that the theatre arts students would love but don’t know about,” said Colleen Mitchell, the library collection development officer.
One reason why some of The Playboys are kept in Case X is because some people find the material offensive. |
The collection of Playboys in Case X dates from 1956 to 1994, and they were originally kept there because they have material that some people may consider offensive, but also because many of the pictures were being cut out.
“A couple of years ago, the library personnel decided that since Playboy-like material was so accessible, it would be safe to put the collection of magazines out in circulation. We had to put them back in Case X because they got cut out again,” Mitchell said.
Students can check out any of the books from Case X and take them home as long as they present their student ID. But when the books are brought back, they will be inspected to make sure they are complete and no damage has been done to them.
Mitchell has moved more than two thirds of the books in Case X to the open shelves and she plans to transfer many more before it is moved from the third floor to the warehouse of the library.
|
