WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.770 Kristin Arnold: This is Kristin Arnold, archivist at the 2 00:00:01.770 --> 00:00:04.620 Sterling Morton Library at The Morton Arboretum. Today is 3 00:00:04.620 --> 00:00:07.590 August 10, 2022. And I'm in the library conference room with 4 00:00:07.590 --> 00:00:09.840 Rita Hassert, library collections manager of the 5 00:00:09.840 --> 00:00:12.420 Sterling Morton Library to discuss the development of the 6 00:00:12.420 --> 00:00:14.340 Sterling Morton Library during her time working at the 7 00:00:14.340 --> 00:00:17.100 Arboretum. Thank you, Rita for agreeing to the recording of 8 00:00:17.100 --> 00:00:17.850 this interview. 9 00:00:17.970 --> 00:00:18.990 Rita Hassert: Happy to be here. 10 00:00:19.320 --> 00:00:21.000 Kristin Arnold: To start, can you please state your first and 11 00:00:21.000 --> 00:00:22.350 last name and spell it for us? 12 00:00:22.770 --> 00:00:26.580 Rita Hassert: Rita. R–I–T–A. Hassert H–A–"double S as in Sam" 13 00:00:26.610 --> 00:00:27.330 E–R–T. 14 00:00:27.780 --> 00:00:29.430 Kristin Arnold: And can you please tell us when you started 15 00:00:29.430 --> 00:00:30.480 working at the library? 16 00:00:30.690 --> 00:00:33.420 Rita Hassert: I started working at the library on September 2, 17 00:00:33.420 --> 00:00:35.850 1986. 18 00:00:35.910 --> 00:00:39.300 Kristin Arnold: Thank you. So since then, obviously, the 19 00:00:39.330 --> 00:00:43.230 Sterling Morton Library has grown in a lot of ways. And so 20 00:00:43.260 --> 00:00:45.570 throughout this interview, we'd like to focus on various aspects 21 00:00:45.570 --> 00:00:47.640 of that development. And so I thought we would just start with 22 00:00:47.640 --> 00:00:51.150 one of the most tangible aspects of development, which would be 23 00:00:51.150 --> 00:00:54.900 the physical space. So can you tell us how the library building 24 00:00:54.900 --> 00:00:57.570 itself has evolved since you started working here? For 25 00:00:57.570 --> 00:01:02.220 example, what did it look like on your first day versus now? 26 00:01:02.700 --> 00:01:06.330 Rita Hassert: So and, and I was thinking, I was thinking about 27 00:01:06.330 --> 00:01:10.020 this question a little bit. And to back up a little bit. Some of 28 00:01:10.020 --> 00:01:13.950 the offices around the library have changed too. So when I 29 00:01:13.950 --> 00:01:20.640 first started, Plant Clinic was providing information, where now 30 00:01:20.640 --> 00:01:24.120 Development sits, and the receptionist, there was a 31 00:01:24.120 --> 00:01:27.120 receptionist, the entrance was different to this building 32 00:01:27.120 --> 00:01:28.170 [Administration and Research Center]. So the entrance is 33 00:01:28.170 --> 00:01:31.410 where now it's called the emergency exit. And where the 34 00:01:32.130 --> 00:01:34.860 building service or building technician closet, that's where 35 00:01:34.860 --> 00:01:37.710 the reception desk and the mailboxes were, so you walked in 36 00:01:37.710 --> 00:01:42.510 very differently. And so what is now where the wall is for the 37 00:01:42.510 --> 00:01:46.620 library—library exhibits, that's actually where you used to walk 38 00:01:46.620 --> 00:01:52.110 through, if you will. So my first day—it was September, 39 00:01:52.140 --> 00:01:57.960 September 2, to be exact. And so I remember being—meeting my 40 00:01:58.140 --> 00:02:02.130 supervisor at the time, his name was Rich Shotwell, and we went 41 00:02:02.130 --> 00:02:06.750 to—he showed me I had an office, which was different because I 42 00:02:06.750 --> 00:02:09.630 had come from an academic library where we had a large 43 00:02:09.630 --> 00:02:12.240 room, kind of a shared office space. So I had my own office, 44 00:02:12.240 --> 00:02:18.030 that was very surprising. Ironically, with a number of 45 00:02:18.030 --> 00:02:21.690 moves through the years, where I am seated right now, where my 46 00:02:21.690 --> 00:02:27.540 workspace is now is in the same space as my 1986 office. The 47 00:02:27.540 --> 00:02:33.030 difference is, I used to have windows to look outside. And 48 00:02:33.030 --> 00:02:37.530 with an addition that took place in '99, completed in 2000—the 49 00:02:37.560 --> 00:02:40.980 Special Collections addition—it's now interior, so I 50 00:02:40.980 --> 00:02:44.700 don't look outside anymore, but I'm in the actual physical space 51 00:02:44.700 --> 00:02:49.140 that I was in 1986. So the building itself, the library, 52 00:02:50.490 --> 00:02:54.420 Sterling Morton Library was completed in 1963. That building 53 00:02:54.420 --> 00:02:58.830 is, I would say, the envelope is essentially the same. There 54 00:02:58.830 --> 00:03:01.530 haven't been—there have been—there's modification and 55 00:03:01.530 --> 00:03:03.690 the windows have been changed and things like that. But 56 00:03:03.690 --> 00:03:08.190 essentially, that space is fairly much the same. One change 57 00:03:08.190 --> 00:03:12.270 was that used to be two or three steps down into the library. And 58 00:03:12.270 --> 00:03:15.900 when we had a renovation, the ramp was put in so now we have a 59 00:03:15.900 --> 00:03:17.400 ramp when you walk in the library, 60 00:03:17.670 --> 00:03:18.690 Kristin Arnold: About when was that? 61 00:03:18.810 --> 00:03:23.520 Rita Hassert: Um, that was 1999–2000. So I would say that 62 00:03:23.520 --> 00:03:27.180 was kind of the big construction project for the library, one of 63 00:03:27.180 --> 00:03:32.490 the big changes. Mr. Haffner, who was Charles Haffner, was 64 00:03:32.490 --> 00:03:36.510 chair of the Arboretum's Board of Trustees. He—at that time, he 65 00:03:36.510 --> 00:03:40.050 was also chair of the Newberry Library board, so he was keenly 66 00:03:40.050 --> 00:03:43.230 interested in special collections. And Mr. Haffner was 67 00:03:43.230 --> 00:03:47.010 aware, as everyone else was, that our Special Collections—the 68 00:03:47.040 --> 00:03:51.120 rare book, the art collection, and the archives—were all housed 69 00:03:51.120 --> 00:03:54.960 in the library basement, never an ideal setting for special 70 00:03:54.960 --> 00:03:58.800 collections. It's not "if you'll get water," it's "when you'll 71 00:03:58.800 --> 00:04:02.280 get water." You know, it just the concern always was, what if 72 00:04:02.280 --> 00:04:05.400 something catastrophic happened? It would jeopardize our Special 73 00:04:05.400 --> 00:04:09.930 Collections. So Mr. Haffner and his wife, Anne, donated funds in 74 00:04:09.930 --> 00:04:17.280 the mid 1990s to build a Special Collections addition. So at that 75 00:04:17.280 --> 00:04:20.910 time, you know, there were all different architectural plans, 76 00:04:21.330 --> 00:04:23.370 would—would it be put on top of the library and where—and it was 77 00:04:23.370 --> 00:04:29.070 determined to be built next to the library, if you will, and so 78 00:04:29.130 --> 00:04:33.840 the space so like, my office and our library workspace is in the 79 00:04:33.840 --> 00:04:39.480 1935 building, and then there used to be before this addition, 80 00:04:39.720 --> 00:04:43.920 there was like a connector walkway between the 30—1935 81 00:04:43.950 --> 00:04:46.590 building, the Administration Building and the library and it 82 00:04:46.590 --> 00:04:50.370 was you know, enclosed, it—carpeted there were it was 83 00:04:50.370 --> 00:04:53.610 wall, the walls were glass and then there was, you know, a 84 00:04:53.610 --> 00:04:56.850 ceiling protection from the elements but you would kind of 85 00:04:56.850 --> 00:05:01.080 walk through this little connector to the 1963 library. 86 00:05:01.380 --> 00:05:03.960 When the addition was put on—construction started in 87 00:05:03.960 --> 00:05:10.050 1999—then the infill space was created that we have now where 88 00:05:10.050 --> 00:05:13.200 our Special Collections Reading Room, that originally would have 89 00:05:13.200 --> 00:05:16.800 been, when I started in '86, that—if you stood in the Special 90 00:05:16.800 --> 00:05:18.960 Collections Reading Room today, you would have been standing 91 00:05:18.960 --> 00:05:23.220 outside in 1986. The same with where our—our current reference 92 00:05:23.220 --> 00:05:27.330 and circulation areas and where our volunteers work. In 1986, 93 00:05:27.360 --> 00:05:29.610 you would have been outside if you'd been there, and so 94 00:05:29.850 --> 00:05:34.170 that—that space was not—was exterior space, if you will. So 95 00:05:34.170 --> 00:05:38.340 that is, I think, one of the significant ways—ways the 96 00:05:38.340 --> 00:05:41.460 building changed, or the buildings changed. And so what 97 00:05:41.460 --> 00:05:45.480 happened when the when it was completed in 2000, then all our 98 00:05:45.480 --> 00:05:48.690 Special Collections items, the bulk of our Special Collections 99 00:05:48.720 --> 00:05:51.480 items—the rare books, the artwork, and the archives—were 100 00:05:51.540 --> 00:05:54.510 placed in our Special Collections addition, it's a 101 00:05:54.510 --> 00:05:57.870 little over 2000 square feet, it's temperature and humidity 102 00:05:57.870 --> 00:06:01.620 controlled. It has its own fire suppression system, it's not a 103 00:06:01.620 --> 00:06:06.450 water-based system, it's a gas system, because as much as we're 104 00:06:06.450 --> 00:06:09.300 against fire, we're also against things getting wet, too. So it 105 00:06:09.300 --> 00:06:14.850 is a gas-based system. It has its own security system, it has 106 00:06:15.150 --> 00:06:19.380 cameras and things like that trying to preserve and extend 107 00:06:19.380 --> 00:06:21.570 the life of those Special Collections items, and then 108 00:06:21.570 --> 00:06:26.010 removing it from the basement was just—changed everything. So 109 00:06:26.010 --> 00:06:30.450 it really—it gave us more space to work with. At that time with 110 00:06:30.450 --> 00:06:35.430 that renovation, is some of the other spaces changed. So we got 111 00:06:35.430 --> 00:06:37.920 the reference and circulation area, we've got the Special 112 00:06:37.920 --> 00:06:41.970 Collections Reading Room. And then within the library, on the 113 00:06:41.970 --> 00:06:45.810 far wall by the [May T. Watts] Reading Garden. Originally, when 114 00:06:45.810 --> 00:06:48.960 the building was built, that was where our exhibit cases were. 115 00:06:49.080 --> 00:06:52.800 They were against that, I guess you'd say east exterior wall. 116 00:06:53.070 --> 00:06:56.310 That's where the exhibit cases were built. Unfortunately, it is 117 00:06:56.310 --> 00:06:59.160 a limestone building. And even at the beginning, there was 118 00:06:59.160 --> 00:07:04.470 water infiltration concerns. So limestone is relatively porous 119 00:07:04.500 --> 00:07:08.010 and water, there had been evidence of water coming into 120 00:07:08.010 --> 00:07:10.770 the exhibit cases. So they were—they weren't really 121 00:07:10.770 --> 00:07:14.430 actively used when I started. And so when we did the 122 00:07:14.430 --> 00:07:17.940 renovation, those cases were removed and bookshelves were put 123 00:07:17.940 --> 00:07:22.200 there to give us more space for the circulating collection. You 124 00:07:22.200 --> 00:07:24.780 know, as I said, some of the exterior changes that happen 125 00:07:24.780 --> 00:07:27.990 beyond the library. So Plant Clinic was very close to—they 126 00:07:28.200 --> 00:07:31.590 were where development is, the reception desk was there. And on 127 00:07:31.590 --> 00:07:35.010 second floor, that's where the Education staff were. So like 128 00:07:35.010 --> 00:07:39.270 all the guides and Education staff were relatively close to 129 00:07:39.270 --> 00:07:42.030 the library. So we always saw a lot of activity from Plant 130 00:07:42.030 --> 00:07:45.420 Clinic users. And then also from Education staff, the guides were 131 00:07:45.420 --> 00:07:48.060 routinely coming in here and using collections and things 132 00:07:48.060 --> 00:07:48.660 like that. 133 00:07:50.250 --> 00:07:53.573 With the Special Collections addtion, completed, as I 134 00:07:53.636 --> 00:07:57.649 mentioned, a ramp was put in to make it the space accessible, so 135 00:07:57.712 --> 00:08:01.538 there would no longer be steps. And then all the glass in the 136 00:08:01.600 --> 00:08:05.300 space was replaced. Prior to that it was single pane glass, 137 00:08:05.363 --> 00:08:08.812 and we'd have a lot of condensation and things and then 138 00:08:08.875 --> 00:08:12.763 with the addition, they put in double pane, you know, a better 139 00:08:12.826 --> 00:08:16.776 glass system for 2000, but—for the year 2000—but a better glass 140 00:08:16.839 --> 00:08:20.665 system. So it was um, we didn't have so much, I guess I'd say 141 00:08:20.727 --> 00:08:22.860 condensation and things like that. 142 00:08:24.780 --> 00:08:26.550 Kristin Arnold: That's really interesting. And so then where 143 00:08:26.550 --> 00:08:31.200 your office is now, was that whole area office space? Was it 144 00:08:31.200 --> 00:08:33.300 kind of the same where you were kind of sectioned off? 145 00:08:33.330 --> 00:08:35.250 Rita Hassert: Yeah, yeah. So there were there were two 146 00:08:35.250 --> 00:08:39.930 offices. Yeah, there are two offices there. So, so what 147 00:08:40.140 --> 00:08:43.320 we—it's—I always feel like I have to draw it. But where we 148 00:08:43.320 --> 00:08:47.130 have that wall now where there, where the monitor is where you 149 00:08:47.130 --> 00:08:49.260 can see the Then and Now [digital gallery], that used to 150 00:08:49.260 --> 00:08:53.040 be where the counter was. So when you would walk in and 151 00:08:53.040 --> 00:08:58.740 again, you'd walk in, you know, not through the way it is now 152 00:08:58.770 --> 00:09:01.530 making that bend, you'd walk in straight and then to your left 153 00:09:01.530 --> 00:09:06.120 would be the counter. And we had some bookshelves and things and 154 00:09:06.120 --> 00:09:08.400 then there were two offices there. I was on the right hand 155 00:09:08.400 --> 00:09:11.970 side and my colleague Peter Wang was on the left hand side. And 156 00:09:11.970 --> 00:09:14.730 so there were two separate offices. We kind of shared we I 157 00:09:14.730 --> 00:09:17.370 think we both had doors, but it was they were relatively close 158 00:09:17.370 --> 00:09:19.800 together. But they were two offices. I mean, they went to 159 00:09:19.800 --> 00:09:22.530 this they weren't like cubicles, if you will. They were offices. 160 00:09:22.530 --> 00:09:22.800 Yeah. 161 00:09:22.950 --> 00:09:24.870 Kristin Arnold: And the room we're currently in now, that was 162 00:09:24.870 --> 00:09:25.650 also an office? 163 00:09:25.680 --> 00:09:29.880 Rita Hassert: Yeah, this was Ian MacPhail's office and then where 164 00:09:29.880 --> 00:09:33.240 the entrance—sounds funny—but the entrance is now that was 165 00:09:33.240 --> 00:09:36.780 actually an office and I when people ask the way the door is 166 00:09:36.780 --> 00:09:38.700 now you're actually walk crawling through a window. 167 00:09:38.700 --> 00:09:41.250 That's where a window would have been. And that was Rich 168 00:09:41.340 --> 00:09:44.340 Shotwell's office. He was the library administrator at the 169 00:09:44.340 --> 00:09:46.860 time and that was his office. This was Ian's office. 170 00:09:46.860 --> 00:09:51.840 Kristin Arnold: OK. Interesting to hear how that all has evolved 171 00:09:51.840 --> 00:09:52.470 over time. 172 00:09:52.500 --> 00:09:54.360 Rita Hassert: Well, the Arboretum has, you know the 173 00:09:54.360 --> 00:09:56.790 stories—I know one of the carpenters always used to say 174 00:09:56.790 --> 00:09:59.100 like he doesn't really put all the nails in because you're 175 00:09:59.100 --> 00:10:00.990 going to move it around eventually, and it's kind of 176 00:10:00.990 --> 00:10:03.930 like that, that there, there's so many like, and for a while 177 00:10:03.930 --> 00:10:08.190 this was, this was Ian's office, this was our reference room. And 178 00:10:08.190 --> 00:10:11.250 then Sue Wagner was here and it's gone through so many just 179 00:10:11.250 --> 00:10:12.330 different evolution. 180 00:10:12.360 --> 00:10:16.980 Kristin Arnold: Yeah. So if you don't have anything else to add 181 00:10:16.980 --> 00:10:20.190 about the physical space, I was also wondering if you could tell 182 00:10:20.190 --> 00:10:22.890 us about how the library's collections have developed over 183 00:10:22.890 --> 00:10:25.650 the years, or like, has the focus of the collections changed 184 00:10:25.650 --> 00:10:26.370 over the years? 185 00:10:26.550 --> 00:10:31.230 Rita Hassert: So I was thinking about that, um, you know, I 186 00:10:31.230 --> 00:10:34.740 always like to say, we stand on the shoulders of giants. So 187 00:10:35.610 --> 00:10:38.880 going back, actually going back all the way to Joy Morton, he 188 00:10:38.880 --> 00:10:42.360 started to acquire collections at the very beginning, and he 189 00:10:42.360 --> 00:10:46.170 consulted with Charles Sprague Sargent, who was then director 190 00:10:46.170 --> 00:10:48.570 at the Arnold Arboretum, and Sargent would send him lists of 191 00:10:48.570 --> 00:10:51.270 books that he should purchase. So that kind of is the very 192 00:10:51.270 --> 00:10:55.860 beginning. In the early '20s [E.] Lowell Kammerer, who was a 193 00:10:56.460 --> 00:10:58.890 staff member here for a number of years, he oversaw the 194 00:10:58.890 --> 00:11:03.630 libraries, and he acquired things. One time, at a time when 195 00:11:03.630 --> 00:11:07.140 the collections really grew were in the '60s, I would say '60s 196 00:11:07.140 --> 00:11:10.230 and '70s, when Suzette Morton Davidson, Joy Morton's 197 00:11:10.230 --> 00:11:13.470 granddaughter, was chair of the Arboretum Board of Trustees. So 198 00:11:13.470 --> 00:11:19.140 she was not only a, she was trained as an artist, a graphic 199 00:11:19.170 --> 00:11:23.580 artist, but she was also keenly interested in botanical art. And 200 00:11:23.580 --> 00:11:27.600 so I like to think of her as a patron kind of in the best sense 201 00:11:27.600 --> 00:11:31.380 of the word, she had economic resources. And she also had good 202 00:11:31.380 --> 00:11:35.310 taste. So she—during that time—Carol Doty has told me 203 00:11:35.310 --> 00:11:39.090 stories about boxes would come from auction houses. And I mean, 204 00:11:39.090 --> 00:11:41.760 they were acquiring a lot of things. The other thing that had 205 00:11:41.760 --> 00:11:45.000 happened, she was buying, I would say at a good time, 206 00:11:45.000 --> 00:11:50.910 because it was post World War II, some of the larger homes and 207 00:11:50.910 --> 00:11:55.020 estates in England—things were becoming available on the 208 00:11:55.020 --> 00:11:59.910 market. And at that time too, prices—botanical art probably 209 00:11:59.910 --> 00:12:02.790 wasn't seen as desirable as it is today. And some of those 210 00:12:02.790 --> 00:12:06.930 early works were, I would say the prices were I don't want to 211 00:12:06.930 --> 00:12:09.270 say depressed, but they were lower than they would be, you 212 00:12:09.270 --> 00:12:12.330 know, even considering what the value of a dollar is today. So, 213 00:12:12.630 --> 00:12:15.420 so things were acquired, certainly at that time. And then 214 00:12:15.420 --> 00:12:18.450 through the years, librarians have continued to add to it. 215 00:12:20.010 --> 00:12:25.590 When I think of the changes in collection or content, I think 216 00:12:25.590 --> 00:12:28.680 in more recent history, I've seen the growth of for example, 217 00:12:28.680 --> 00:12:31.320 the children's collection. We always had kind of a smaller 218 00:12:31.320 --> 00:12:34.140 collection, but that has grown, particularly with the 219 00:12:34.140 --> 00:12:36.510 development of the Children's Garden and working with 220 00:12:36.510 --> 00:12:40.080 colleagues within that program, to make sure that we're 221 00:12:40.080 --> 00:12:43.140 selecting things that they're using in programs and things. So 222 00:12:43.140 --> 00:12:45.960 I feel like our children's collection has grown. And then 223 00:12:45.960 --> 00:12:49.650 also research interests at the Arboretum. I mean, we always use 224 00:12:50.190 --> 00:12:55.560 Collections, Education, and Research as kind of our, how we 225 00:12:55.560 --> 00:13:01.560 collect things, but interests and focus of those programs has 226 00:13:01.560 --> 00:13:05.970 changed through the years. So we have an increasing number—as we 227 00:13:05.970 --> 00:13:09.330 have classes in botanical art here, we have an increasing 228 00:13:09.330 --> 00:13:12.630 number of resources related to botanical art, whether it's in 229 00:13:12.630 --> 00:13:17.040 technique or examples of botanical art. And then just as 230 00:13:17.070 --> 00:13:19.830 our science, what we call today, Science and Conservation, what 231 00:13:19.830 --> 00:13:23.190 we kind of previously referred to as the Research Program. But 232 00:13:23.220 --> 00:13:27.120 some of those projects have changed. So we try to, you know, 233 00:13:27.120 --> 00:13:31.470 within the constraints of budget, we try to acquire 234 00:13:31.470 --> 00:13:36.270 resources that support those programs as well. So it's kind 235 00:13:36.270 --> 00:13:40.950 of continually, you know, with each strategic plan, reviewing 236 00:13:40.950 --> 00:13:45.330 it, and assessing that we are acquiring things or have access 237 00:13:45.330 --> 00:13:49.590 to things that we think people will need. Having said that, 238 00:13:50.790 --> 00:13:55.110 realistically, I know we can't own everything. That's just not 239 00:13:55.110 --> 00:13:59.550 going to happen, you know. So we, but we can—and I—what I so 240 00:13:59.550 --> 00:14:02.370 proud about libraries, this library included that we 241 00:14:02.370 --> 00:14:06.450 participate in resource sharing. So even though there's—there's 242 00:14:06.870 --> 00:14:11.310 no hope that we can own every resource ever published on a 243 00:14:11.310 --> 00:14:15.450 singular topic, much less multiple topics, but we can 244 00:14:15.450 --> 00:14:19.260 share resources. And so I think the addition of for example, the 245 00:14:19.260 --> 00:14:22.620 eBook collection has really kind of helped extend our reach a 246 00:14:22.620 --> 00:14:25.740 bit. I don't have to worry about shelf space with eBooks, you 247 00:14:25.740 --> 00:14:29.070 know, I mean, as long as it's accessible, so that's 7000 248 00:14:29.070 --> 00:14:32.820 titles that—additional titles and primarily contemporary 249 00:14:32.820 --> 00:14:36.210 titles—people have access to. In some cases, we do have print 250 00:14:36.210 --> 00:14:40.140 copies of some titles as well, just because it might be it's 251 00:14:40.140 --> 00:14:44.100 something really central to what we do. But, but I think there 252 00:14:44.100 --> 00:14:49.230 have been—and just like with our journals, we have print 253 00:14:49.230 --> 00:14:52.260 journals, in some cases, but we also have an increasing number 254 00:14:52.260 --> 00:14:55.380 of electronic journals. But, but as I said, realistically, I know 255 00:14:55.380 --> 00:14:58.380 we can't own it all. We can't heat it all. We can't cool it 256 00:14:58.380 --> 00:15:02.310 all. But we can—we work very hard and trying to figure out 257 00:15:02.340 --> 00:15:05.370 where we can get it from and how we can share things. So 258 00:15:06.480 --> 00:15:10.080 yeah, I mean, I think it's the evolution. The collection in a 259 00:15:10.080 --> 00:15:16.050 way reflects the evolution of the Arboretum, you know. Earlier 260 00:15:16.050 --> 00:15:22.440 years, research was narrower, I would say. And gradually over 261 00:15:22.440 --> 00:15:25.740 time, it is certainly broaden the different topics people are 262 00:15:25.740 --> 00:15:28.650 working on and, and how best we can support them. 263 00:15:28.800 --> 00:15:30.450 Kristin Arnold: Yeah, that's interesting, like your example 264 00:15:30.450 --> 00:15:32.880 about the—how that—when the Children's Garden was 265 00:15:32.880 --> 00:15:37.230 established how that kind of fueled the, you know, increasing 266 00:15:37.230 --> 00:15:40.620 the titles in children's book collection, and yeah, creating 267 00:15:40.740 --> 00:15:43.830 or having resources that staff could use. So that, yeah, that's 268 00:15:43.830 --> 00:15:47.280 interesting how the collection kind of reflects the evolution 269 00:15:47.280 --> 00:15:48.270 of the Arboretum itself. 270 00:15:48.330 --> 00:15:51.660 Rita Hassert: You know, and we are a little different than, not 271 00:15:51.660 --> 00:15:56.670 all, but some of the other libraries affiliated with 272 00:15:56.670 --> 00:16:00.480 gardens or arboreta. We are a lending library, we're open to 273 00:16:00.480 --> 00:16:06.270 the public. Some, some of the libraries are only staff or 274 00:16:06.600 --> 00:16:10.320 there are several that are non- borrowing, you can only use 275 00:16:10.350 --> 00:16:13.290 items on site. So we, you know, we wear a couple of different 276 00:16:13.290 --> 00:16:16.230 hats. We're a little bit like a public library, because anyone 277 00:16:16.230 --> 00:16:18.810 can come in, which is wonderful. And they can use it the 278 00:16:18.810 --> 00:16:21.870 resources. We're a little bit like a public library, too, is 279 00:16:21.900 --> 00:16:26.160 that we're offering kind of a range of level of information, 280 00:16:26.160 --> 00:16:29.250 if you will. So we have a kid's books on trees, and we might 281 00:16:29.250 --> 00:16:32.340 have a general gardening guide. And then we have something 282 00:16:32.340 --> 00:16:34.380 highly scientific. And then we're a little bit like an 283 00:16:34.380 --> 00:16:38.370 academic in some of the things we acquire. But as I said, we're 284 00:16:38.400 --> 00:16:41.760 sometimes a bit different. And I am always aware of that at 285 00:16:41.760 --> 00:16:44.160 meetings and things when people talk because it's like, "Oh, 286 00:16:44.250 --> 00:16:46.860 that's right. You don't circulate?" Oh, that's just 287 00:16:46.860 --> 00:16:50.190 interesting to me. And I mean, for us, it feels like second 288 00:16:50.190 --> 00:16:54.690 nature. And then the other is, we're a little different. Some 289 00:16:54.690 --> 00:16:57.990 of the other libraries have standalone catalogs or might be 290 00:16:57.990 --> 00:17:01.320 part of, you know, local consortium, but we're part of 291 00:17:01.320 --> 00:17:04.230 SWAN [System Wide Automated Network] which is like, that's 292 00:17:04.230 --> 00:17:10.080 over 100 libraries regional. No, no, it's um, absolutely. It's 293 00:17:10.080 --> 00:17:12.210 public libraries, school libraries, a couple of 294 00:17:12.210 --> 00:17:15.870 academics, I think we're—very few specials, but we're one of 295 00:17:15.870 --> 00:17:19.590 the specials that are part of it. So I feel and that helps—in 296 00:17:19.920 --> 00:17:22.590 my mind that helps with our collection visibility, more 297 00:17:22.590 --> 00:17:25.770 people can see us. We're not—and it doesn't require someone to 298 00:17:25.770 --> 00:17:28.950 say, "Huh. Morton Arboretum. I wonder if they have a library 299 00:17:28.950 --> 00:17:31.170 and what's their catalog?" They can just, you know, if they look 300 00:17:31.170 --> 00:17:34.470 in SWAN, they will know what we have. We've also 301 00:17:34.500 --> 00:17:38.250 cataloged—always catalog—always, I shouldn't say that—not since 302 00:17:38.250 --> 00:17:41.220 the very beginning, but probably since the '70s in OCLC [Online 303 00:17:41.220 --> 00:17:43.230 Computer Library Center]. So again, our collections are more 304 00:17:43.230 --> 00:17:46.350 visible. So really tried to work on that because as I said, 305 00:17:46.860 --> 00:17:50.610 absolutely no, we can't own it all. But we can, we work really 306 00:17:50.610 --> 00:17:51.390 hard to share it. 307 00:17:51.750 --> 00:17:54.720 Kristin Arnold: Did the library start lending or letting people 308 00:17:54.720 --> 00:17:59.730 borrow when the Sterling Morton Library was built? Or were they 309 00:17:59.730 --> 00:18:00.900 lending even before that? 310 00:18:00.930 --> 00:18:03.420 Rita Hassert: Well, there there is a story from from Jim 311 00:18:03.450 --> 00:18:07.830 Ballowe's book, he talks about Joy Morton, his home. There was 312 00:18:07.920 --> 00:18:10.560 a man that he interviewed and I think the gentleman was like in 313 00:18:10.560 --> 00:18:14.550 his 70s or 80s when he interviewed him, and he 314 00:18:14.700 --> 00:18:18.990 described—this man who lived in the area—he knew someone who 315 00:18:18.990 --> 00:18:22.740 worked at the house—at the Thornhill mansion. And he was 316 00:18:22.740 --> 00:18:27.360 visiting his friend. He somehow wandered into Joy Morton's 317 00:18:27.360 --> 00:18:31.230 library, started to look at a book. Mr. Morton came in and 318 00:18:31.230 --> 00:18:34.800 kind of—he thought he was going to get in trouble. And instead 319 00:18:34.800 --> 00:18:38.130 Mr. Morton was like, "Take the book," you know, and invited him 320 00:18:38.130 --> 00:18:41.490 to come back and look at things. So I actually—I just spoke to 321 00:18:41.490 --> 00:18:44.010 the Rotary Club and I told him that story because I said, I 322 00:18:44.010 --> 00:18:49.950 feel like that idea of sharing knowledge is, you know, the kind 323 00:18:49.950 --> 00:18:53.280 of the symbolism of it. Did—it wasn't that I believe Joy Morton 324 00:18:53.280 --> 00:18:55.890 had a lending library and he was—but he but he did want staff 325 00:18:55.890 --> 00:18:59.880 to use it. There is—and I think, I've read that there was like a 326 00:18:59.880 --> 00:19:03.000 doorway, and it was always unlocked, so staff could come 327 00:19:03.000 --> 00:19:06.480 in. I mean, I think he felt it was very important to kind of 328 00:19:06.480 --> 00:19:11.100 share that. And then I think from—I, but I imagine even 329 00:19:11.130 --> 00:19:14.730 before—I don't know if I've seen records, but I'm, I know from 330 00:19:14.730 --> 00:19:17.970 the early '60s, you can see signs of cards and things that 331 00:19:17.970 --> 00:19:20.850 they would have been checking things out. So I think it—I 332 00:19:21.480 --> 00:19:25.170 don't think we were ever non-circulating and suddenly we 333 00:19:25.170 --> 00:19:28.380 became circulating. I don't think that was ever—I think it 334 00:19:28.410 --> 00:19:31.650 at least from the '60s and probably I bet even before 335 00:19:32.250 --> 00:19:35.340 because there was always—but that's the spirit of the 336 00:19:35.340 --> 00:19:38.730 Arboretum. It's not kind of like we have all our trees now the 337 00:19:38.730 --> 00:19:41.910 fences, you know, it's all closed, the gate is locked. I 338 00:19:41.910 --> 00:19:45.210 feel like it's really about you know, we're planting these, 339 00:19:45.210 --> 00:19:48.300 we're protecting these, we're propagating, come and see them. 340 00:19:48.300 --> 00:19:51.300 Come and—come and use this space. So yeah, I feel like 341 00:19:51.300 --> 00:19:52.380 that's kind of the spirit. 342 00:19:53.340 --> 00:19:57.210 Kristin Arnold: I agree. So switching gears, could you 343 00:19:57.210 --> 00:20:01.140 describe the types of events, activities, or exhibits that the 344 00:20:01.140 --> 00:20:04.050 library has hosted since you've worked here? 345 00:20:04.650 --> 00:20:07.620 Rita Hassert: So we've, we've done some stuff. That's what I 346 00:20:07.620 --> 00:20:12.510 like to say. So we've—in the past and some, some things I'll 347 00:20:12.510 --> 00:20:16.200 talk about are past and some things are present, but we, for 348 00:20:16.200 --> 00:20:19.440 a number of years—I know this predated me—there was a Sterling 349 00:20:19.440 --> 00:20:22.530 Morton Library lecture series. So different— 350 00:20:24.240 --> 00:20:27.639 And they weren't always bibliographically related. They 351 00:20:27.700 --> 00:20:31.285 were sometimes talking about plant hunters and things like 352 00:20:31.347 --> 00:20:34.931 that. But there was a lecture series. So we'd host various 353 00:20:34.993 --> 00:20:38.825 speakers and guests would come in to listen to lectures. There 354 00:20:38.887 --> 00:20:42.780 have been through the years, for sure, sometimes on our own and 355 00:20:42.842 --> 00:20:45.994 sometimes working with Education, having classes or 356 00:20:46.056 --> 00:20:49.640 presentations and different things within the library. For 357 00:20:49.702 --> 00:20:53.657 several years, we had a Friends group, although I always like to 358 00:20:53.719 --> 00:20:57.551 think everyone's our friend, but we did have a Sterling Morton 359 00:20:57.612 --> 00:21:01.568 Library Friends. And within the Friends group, they would come a 360 00:21:01.630 --> 00:21:05.276 couple times a year, and they would hear a presentation and 361 00:21:05.338 --> 00:21:09.108 oftentimes have lunch and kind of visit and it was, you know, 362 00:21:09.169 --> 00:21:13.001 cultivating relationships, but we did have a Friends group. As 363 00:21:13.063 --> 00:21:16.586 I said, we've had classes, tours, and certainly in recent 364 00:21:16.647 --> 00:21:20.355 history we've done and we have in the past too, whether it's 365 00:21:20.417 --> 00:21:24.311 professional organ—organizations like area librarians we've had 366 00:21:24.373 --> 00:21:28.266 in. We've had, more recently I know, groups like AAUW, American 367 00:21:28.328 --> 00:21:32.221 Association of University Women, have come in for presentations 368 00:21:32.283 --> 00:21:35.991 or different, like, collector groups. We've worked with both 369 00:21:36.053 --> 00:21:39.699 the Arboretum's photographic society [MAPS], as well as the 370 00:21:39.761 --> 00:21:43.346 Nature Artists' Guild. With a photographic society several 371 00:21:43.408 --> 00:21:46.745 times we've had pop-up exhibits. So they display their 372 00:21:46.807 --> 00:21:50.515 photographs within—their print photographs, as well as their 373 00:21:50.577 --> 00:21:54.223 digital photographs—within the library. We're going to host 374 00:21:54.285 --> 00:21:58.116 another one of those events in October of this year. And it's, 375 00:21:58.178 --> 00:22:01.948 this one is going to focus on the Schulenberg Prairie because 376 00:22:02.010 --> 00:22:05.780 it's the 60th anniversary of the Schulenberg Prairie. That'll 377 00:22:05.842 --> 00:22:09.241 be—I think it'll run Tuesday through Sunday, which is a 378 00:22:09.302 --> 00:22:13.134 longer time. The other times we had pop-up exhibits, they were 379 00:22:13.196 --> 00:22:15.853 just the weekend, which was fine. And we're 380 00:22:15.915 --> 00:22:19.685 also—strategically—it's also going to be the same time as the 381 00:22:19.747 --> 00:22:23.455 Glass Pumpkin events. So that means a lot of visitors on the 382 00:22:23.517 --> 00:22:27.101 ground. And hopefully, we're really hoping through signage 383 00:22:27.163 --> 00:22:30.809 and hope, hopefully, we won't have to conscript people, but 384 00:22:30.871 --> 00:22:34.209 we're hopefully going to see people inside the library 385 00:22:34.270 --> 00:22:37.917 looking at the photographs. We've also worked with a number 386 00:22:37.978 --> 00:22:40.945 of years with the Nature Artists' Guild, another 387 00:22:41.007 --> 00:22:44.344 affinitive group at the Arboretum. And with the guild, 388 00:22:44.406 --> 00:22:48.114 for example, this year, I should say in the spring—for their 389 00:22:48.176 --> 00:22:52.131 spring show, which was in Cudahy Room, we had—in the library, we 390 00:22:52.193 --> 00:22:55.777 had some of the examples of artwork from our collection on 391 00:22:55.839 --> 00:22:59.609 display, and that was very well received. So this fall, we're 392 00:22:59.671 --> 00:23:03.317 working with them. Again, they are going to do something to 393 00:23:03.379 --> 00:23:07.211 celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Schulenberg Prairie in a 394 00:23:07.272 --> 00:23:11.104 November for their fall show. Under discussion right now is to 395 00:23:11.166 --> 00:23:14.318 have on display some of the artists' artwork of the 396 00:23:14.380 --> 00:23:18.088 Schulenberg Prairie on display in the library in addition to 397 00:23:18.150 --> 00:23:21.858 their fall show, so we've worked with them as well. And, and 398 00:23:21.920 --> 00:23:25.628 certainly tours, I'm thinking we've had tours of high school 399 00:23:25.689 --> 00:23:29.336 and college students, as well as other affiliate—affiliated 400 00:23:29.398 --> 00:23:32.920 groups. And then Leafing Through The Pages is a library's 401 00:23:32.982 --> 00:23:36.381 discussion group that started in 2003. So we're quickly 402 00:23:36.443 --> 00:23:40.275 approaching our 20th anniversary of that group. It started, as 403 00:23:40.336 --> 00:23:43.921 many good things do, as a hallway conversation. I was just 404 00:23:43.983 --> 00:23:47.567 walking down the hall, I ran into Diana Fischer-Woods, who 405 00:23:47.629 --> 00:23:51.214 was a staff member within Visitor Programs. And kind of at 406 00:23:51.275 --> 00:23:55.045 the same time, probably she—we both said like "You know, it'd 407 00:23:55.107 --> 00:23:59.001 be fun to have a book discussion group and what do you think?" 408 00:23:59.062 --> 00:24:02.461 We started talking about that. That was probably, maybe 409 00:24:02.523 --> 00:24:06.293 December I'm thinking, and then okay, well, we'll promote it. 410 00:24:06.355 --> 00:24:10.187 And we'll see, you know, build it. Let's see what happens. And 411 00:24:10.248 --> 00:24:14.142 so we had our first gathering in March of 2003. We actually had 412 00:24:14.204 --> 00:24:17.974 it up at Thornhill [Education Center] because we weren't sure 413 00:24:18.035 --> 00:24:21.867 if like 75 people would come or three people would come and so 414 00:24:21.929 --> 00:24:25.328 it's like do we have it in the library? So we had it at 415 00:24:25.390 --> 00:24:29.345 Thornhill. And I think the first discussion we had 12. You know, 416 00:24:29.407 --> 00:24:32.868 it's like, wow. And then you know, and I think we read a 417 00:24:32.930 --> 00:24:36.452 short story together and we talked about it. And then you 418 00:24:36.514 --> 00:24:39.913 know, asked people "Are you interested?" and, you know, 419 00:24:39.975 --> 00:24:43.436 everyone thought it was a good idea. And then we—for the 420 00:24:43.498 --> 00:24:46.959 beginning, for the first couple of months, we were up at 421 00:24:47.021 --> 00:24:50.852 Thornhill. And then gradually we, we saw our numbers were, you 422 00:24:50.914 --> 00:24:54.437 know, in the teens and so we moved down into library. But 423 00:24:54.499 --> 00:24:58.145 over the years, it's certainly grown in attendance. And you 424 00:24:58.207 --> 00:25:01.668 know, then we had a pandemic. And I—it was wonderful how 425 00:25:01.729 --> 00:25:05.623 people were able to pivot going from an in-person discussion to 426 00:25:05.685 --> 00:25:09.516 a Zoom discussion. We had our discussion, I guess it was March 427 00:25:09.578 --> 00:25:13.101 12, 2020. March 3—and people came I remember in Cudahy we 428 00:25:13.163 --> 00:25:16.933 talked about, and I moved the chairs apart, because I came in 429 00:25:16.994 --> 00:25:20.579 and the setup chairs were relatively close together. And I 430 00:25:20.641 --> 00:25:24.225 thought, you know, this COVID thing, so I moved the chairs 431 00:25:24.287 --> 00:25:27.686 apart. Cindy Crosby was the—actually had written a book 432 00:25:27.748 --> 00:25:31.703 on the prairie. And she was—she was the author who was coming to 433 00:25:31.765 --> 00:25:35.597 meet with the group. And so we talked about like, would anyone 434 00:25:35.658 --> 00:25:39.305 come? I don't know. I think we had 32 people. And so it was 435 00:25:39.367 --> 00:25:42.766 like the pandemic was just looming. Well, the next day, 436 00:25:42.827 --> 00:25:46.597 Friday the 13th, that's when we were told that everything was 437 00:25:46.659 --> 00:25:49.749 shutting down. And so for the April discussion, we 438 00:25:49.811 --> 00:25:53.025 moved—migrated to Zoom and it did very well. I mean, 439 00:25:53.087 --> 00:25:56.362 especially those first discussions, I'm sure for many 440 00:25:56.424 --> 00:26:00.070 people, it was the first time they'd ever used Zoom. And we 441 00:26:00.132 --> 00:26:04.149 kind of found our grounding. And we did that for over a year. And 442 00:26:04.211 --> 00:26:08.166 then we have migrated back to in person. And right now I'm doing 443 00:26:08.228 --> 00:26:11.380 an in-person discussion in the morning. It's once a 444 00:26:11.442 --> 00:26:15.212 month—in-person discussion, the morning and in the afternoon, 445 00:26:15.273 --> 00:26:18.796 we're doing a Zoom discussion, because there's still some 446 00:26:18.858 --> 00:26:22.566 people who are uncomfortable, you know, visiting. But that's 447 00:26:22.628 --> 00:26:26.460 been a program in the library. And I feel like that speaks to— 448 00:26:27.900 --> 00:26:31.620 if people think about the word library, sometimes immediately 449 00:26:31.620 --> 00:26:36.090 they picture shelves with books on them. And in no way am I 450 00:26:36.090 --> 00:26:40.770 trying to deny that that isn't part of the persona of library. 451 00:26:40.770 --> 00:26:44.400 But a library is all about community. And it's also about 452 00:26:44.490 --> 00:26:49.050 connection and sharing ideas. And the idea can be shared on 453 00:26:49.050 --> 00:26:51.990 paper in a book, or it can be shared as part of a discussion. 454 00:26:51.990 --> 00:26:53.850 And I feel like the discussion group is kind of the 455 00:26:53.850 --> 00:26:57.720 manifestation of that—how knowledge and information is 456 00:26:57.720 --> 00:27:02.370 shared. So we do read—I kind of chuckle about this—we read far 457 00:27:02.370 --> 00:27:05.100 more nonfiction than I'm ever ready to read. But we read a lot 458 00:27:05.100 --> 00:27:08.580 of nonfiction, a little bit of fiction, primarily focused—the 459 00:27:08.610 --> 00:27:14.190 goal is to select things that are about nature and natural 460 00:27:14.190 --> 00:27:17.760 history, ecology, gardens and the land I guess, I would say. 461 00:27:17.820 --> 00:27:23.310 And so within that, we've read—we read, typically books, 462 00:27:23.310 --> 00:27:26.370 but we've also viewed films together, we've met authors, 463 00:27:26.370 --> 00:27:29.730 we've gone on tram rides as a group, you know, so it's really 464 00:27:29.730 --> 00:27:33.510 been a nice community. In—in kind of, in that same spirit, 465 00:27:33.810 --> 00:27:36.720 the Children's Garden staff approached us several years ago 466 00:27:36.720 --> 00:27:40.770 about doing a story time in the library called Arbor Reading 467 00:27:40.770 --> 00:27:45.900 Adventures. So they started to do that. It—at first it was just 468 00:27:45.900 --> 00:27:50.010 one day a week, and now it's twice a week in the winter 469 00:27:50.010 --> 00:27:53.940 months, when it's less, it's inclement outside, they've come 470 00:27:53.940 --> 00:27:57.810 inside. And so the Children's Garden staff present a story, 471 00:27:57.840 --> 00:28:00.330 they typically make a nature-related craft, and then 472 00:28:00.330 --> 00:28:03.000 they go out for an adventure walk. And that's been wonderful. 473 00:28:03.390 --> 00:28:06.600 You know, we didn't know, the first couple sessions, what it 474 00:28:06.600 --> 00:28:09.840 would be like, and would people come and the nice thing is, 475 00:28:10.020 --> 00:28:13.890 sometimes you see a child coming, who's really hesitant. 476 00:28:14.190 --> 00:28:17.280 And by the second week, they're leading their parent or 477 00:28:17.280 --> 00:28:20.130 grandparents saying, "Come on, we've got to, we've got to hear 478 00:28:20.130 --> 00:28:23.040 the story," you know, so it's just been it's—and it's also 479 00:28:23.070 --> 00:28:27.030 introduced the library to people in different ways. They didn't 480 00:28:27.030 --> 00:28:29.070 know they could even come in this building, you know, the 481 00:28:29.070 --> 00:28:31.320 Administration Building as a whole. Or they didn't know there 482 00:28:31.320 --> 00:28:34.980 might be anything that they'd be interested in. And so we've kind 483 00:28:34.980 --> 00:28:39.390 of trans—seen people transform from being someone coming for 484 00:28:39.390 --> 00:28:42.330 one program to start checking books out. So that's been really 485 00:28:42.330 --> 00:28:45.720 positive. So those are, those are the things that kind of 486 00:28:45.720 --> 00:28:51.030 stand out in my mind. We've also, I think, as a library 487 00:28:51.030 --> 00:28:56.040 community, we also partner with people beyond, you know, beyond 488 00:28:56.040 --> 00:28:59.850 the library working on programs and things. And you know, I—my 489 00:28:59.880 --> 00:29:03.660 belief is anyway, we can integrate library into other 490 00:29:03.660 --> 00:29:05.520 programs. You know—, 491 00:29:05.520 --> 00:29:07.650 Kristin Arnold: Just today you did a presentation for the 492 00:29:07.650 --> 00:29:07.920 Rotary— 493 00:29:08.100 --> 00:29:10.590 Rita Hassert: —Rotary Club. Yeah, nothing—I mean, it wasn't 494 00:29:10.590 --> 00:29:13.230 something—and it was funny that at the end, someone came up to 495 00:29:13.230 --> 00:29:15.990 me from Wheaton Public Library and said, "Oh, would you, would 496 00:29:15.990 --> 00:29:18.540 you consider doing this at Wheaton Public, you know, 497 00:29:18.570 --> 00:29:21.000 because it's about Arboretum history and talking about the 498 00:29:21.000 --> 00:29:23.580 Centennial." It's like, "I'd be happy to—happy to share that." 499 00:29:23.850 --> 00:29:26.580 So yeah, do just try it. And that—that came through someone, 500 00:29:26.580 --> 00:29:30.060 I think someone in membership contacted me about it. And it's 501 00:29:30.060 --> 00:29:32.040 like, well, I hadn't thought about it. But I could do that. 502 00:29:32.070 --> 00:29:35.640 You know, I always think I can do anything. So I can try at 503 00:29:35.640 --> 00:29:39.150 least so yeah, but we've, we've, we've tried to play well with 504 00:29:39.150 --> 00:29:42.570 others is usually what I try to—try to imagine at least. 505 00:29:43.260 --> 00:29:49.290 Kristin Arnold: And so the exhibit space we have now. So 506 00:29:49.410 --> 00:29:51.630 that—was that constructed during the renovation around like 507 00:29:51.660 --> 00:29:52.530 '99–2000? 508 00:29:52.560 --> 00:29:52.830 Rita Hassert: Yeah. 509 00:29:53.010 --> 00:29:55.050 Kristin Arnold: And so, I guess, what kind of exhibits—I know 510 00:29:55.650 --> 00:29:59.310 right now we have the Imprinted exhibit with images from the 511 00:29:59.310 --> 00:30:03.600 archives. Before that we had Plant Hunters. What other kinds 512 00:30:03.600 --> 00:30:04.920 of exhibit have there been? 513 00:30:04.950 --> 00:30:07.860 Rita Hassert: So, so yeah, it's really gone through an 514 00:30:07.860 --> 00:30:11.070 evolution, I'd say. So originally when the space was 515 00:30:11.070 --> 00:30:15.660 created, it was the library created exhibits. And that's in 516 00:30:15.660 --> 00:30:19.950 conjunction with Nancy Hart. She was—have to check her title. She 517 00:30:19.950 --> 00:30:23.310 was staff artist, but she was also—I don't know if at that 518 00:30:23.310 --> 00:30:25.830 point, it was even called interpretation. But she was a 519 00:30:25.830 --> 00:30:30.360 graphic artist. So she would also assist. And she also worked 520 00:30:30.360 --> 00:30:33.930 with the art collection, but she would assist with it. So we 521 00:30:33.930 --> 00:30:38.130 usually would have sometimes as many as two exhibits a year so 522 00:30:38.130 --> 00:30:41.250 they could be—they really ran the gamut there. I remember 523 00:30:41.250 --> 00:30:45.210 there was one on—I think we had one exhibit on Carol Lerner's 524 00:30:45.210 --> 00:30:49.320 artwork, we had mushrooms, there was kind of a host of topics. 525 00:30:49.320 --> 00:30:52.920 Sometimes it would be kind of built around a single Special 526 00:30:52.920 --> 00:30:57.450 Collections item. And then other things would be added. In more 527 00:30:57.450 --> 00:31:01.440 recent history when, when the, when Nancy retired and some 528 00:31:01.440 --> 00:31:05.400 positions changed and things, it was transitioned to working 529 00:31:05.400 --> 00:31:09.120 with—more closely with Interpretation on it. And during 530 00:31:09.120 --> 00:31:14.220 that time, in more recent history, well, one it—you know 531 00:31:14.220 --> 00:31:16.560 what, I'm kind of smiling about it. But one exhibit that was 532 00:31:16.560 --> 00:31:20.520 fun, we had an interim exhibit and a colleague within the 533 00:31:20.520 --> 00:31:23.850 library and I—actually two colleagues and I worked on this, 534 00:31:24.210 --> 00:31:29.550 and it was called Flora Illuminated. And what it was, is 535 00:31:29.550 --> 00:31:36.300 we took the alphabet, and we identified various plants that 536 00:31:36.300 --> 00:31:40.500 began with that letter, and then using artwork, and then stories 537 00:31:40.500 --> 00:31:43.830 related to it. And so it was kind of, kind of frivolous in a 538 00:31:43.830 --> 00:31:47.310 way. But it was a way to, you know, I say that it's like a 539 00:31:47.310 --> 00:31:49.920 climbing wall. There's just different ways you can kind of 540 00:31:49.920 --> 00:31:53.280 grab and get a toehold on the collection. And you know, you 541 00:31:53.280 --> 00:31:58.980 can focus on a rare book, or you can focus, you know, on a topic 542 00:31:58.980 --> 00:32:02.130 like mushrooms, but this was a little more playful. And so we 543 00:32:02.130 --> 00:32:07.740 would have not only, you know, the—and I now—well, I remember 544 00:32:07.740 --> 00:32:10.620 Z, I believe, was zinnia. But then we would have one of the 545 00:32:10.620 --> 00:32:13.860 stories related to—or in a quote, we always had a quote. 546 00:32:13.860 --> 00:32:16.590 And the quotes could be kind of cheeky, in a way, sometimes they 547 00:32:16.590 --> 00:32:20.130 were kind of funny quotes and things or—I think for B for 548 00:32:20.130 --> 00:32:24.930 banana, I think we had, maybe it was Maria Sibylla Merian, her 549 00:32:24.990 --> 00:32:27.780 illustration of banana, but it was I think Jimmy Durante like, 550 00:32:27.810 --> 00:32:29.970 "Yes, We Have No Bananas" or something like that. So I mean, 551 00:32:29.970 --> 00:32:33.210 it was kind of—it was playful. And what was the nice thing is I 552 00:32:33.210 --> 00:32:36.330 mean, I—it's kind of like baseball, you kind of like that 553 00:32:36.330 --> 00:32:38.850 changeup pitch that people thought, oh, this is a serious 554 00:32:38.850 --> 00:32:41.790 exhibit, and then they start reading and go like, oh, my this 555 00:32:41.790 --> 00:32:44.430 is like, this is hilar—you know, we would hear that—this is so 556 00:32:44.430 --> 00:32:47.100 funny, you know, you know, just different quotes. And they were 557 00:32:47.130 --> 00:32:50.130 all over the board. You know, I mean, we probably had Socrates 558 00:32:50.130 --> 00:32:54.240 or Plato, a quote from them. And then also, yes, something kind 559 00:32:54.240 --> 00:32:57.420 of, kind of silly, you know, but it was nice. And because one of 560 00:32:57.420 --> 00:33:02.370 the things too—so kind of underlying all this, we want 561 00:33:02.370 --> 00:33:05.940 people to feel welcome. And not, you know, sometimes when people 562 00:33:05.940 --> 00:33:09.060 come into spaces, they don't always feel welcome. And you 563 00:33:09.060 --> 00:33:12.600 want it to be playful. And so people of all ages to be 564 00:33:12.600 --> 00:33:17.970 comfortable coming in. And so it—one of the other exhibits 565 00:33:17.970 --> 00:33:23.220 when we had our 50th anniversary of the library, we had Tales—I 566 00:33:23.280 --> 00:33:26.640 think was called Tales and Treasures. And so it was kind of 567 00:33:26.910 --> 00:33:31.950 the idea of 50 objects, kind of reflecting those 50 years. And 568 00:33:31.950 --> 00:33:36.480 so, and—but we had things that might appeal to children, you 569 00:33:36.480 --> 00:33:40.080 know, so we don't—you don't want to wait till someone's like 27 570 00:33:40.110 --> 00:33:43.530 to say, "Trees are important, come to the library." You want 571 00:33:43.530 --> 00:33:47.580 them to feel welcome at an early age. And so, so we had drawers 572 00:33:47.580 --> 00:33:49.740 that open and you know, we kind of did that. That was 573 00:33:49.770 --> 00:33:53.580 continued—those drawers, that drawer system started with Tales 574 00:33:53.580 --> 00:33:56.400 and Treasures and then continued in Plant Hunters. Different 575 00:33:56.400 --> 00:33:59.400 things were put in the drawers, but the idea of like, oh, I can 576 00:33:59.400 --> 00:34:02.100 draw or I can—and I think we asked them what they thought 577 00:34:02.100 --> 00:34:04.470 libraries would look like in the future, draw a picture and 578 00:34:04.470 --> 00:34:07.560 things. So, so, so I think there's different purposes for 579 00:34:07.560 --> 00:34:11.550 exhibits. You know, some is to tell stories, some is to maybe 580 00:34:11.550 --> 00:34:14.940 highlight Special Collections items, but also, you know, to 581 00:34:14.940 --> 00:34:18.690 encourage people to explore more and then also I feel like 582 00:34:18.690 --> 00:34:24.420 another underlying theme is to say welcome and, and, and 583 00:34:25.050 --> 00:34:27.960 discover things here this, you know, to encourage them to 584 00:34:27.960 --> 00:34:32.490 discover more. So—but they—there have been some wonderful 585 00:34:32.490 --> 00:34:35.520 exhibits. And sometimes, in some cases, we've been able to have 586 00:34:35.520 --> 00:34:38.250 presentations and programs related to it, which is always 587 00:34:38.250 --> 00:34:41.760 very exciting too to kind of gather people and hear the 588 00:34:41.760 --> 00:34:43.440 stories together and things. 589 00:34:44.489 --> 00:34:48.029 Kristin Arnold: So speaking of being welcoming to people, I 590 00:34:48.029 --> 00:34:52.019 wanted to ask you about who uses the Sterling Morton Library and 591 00:34:52.019 --> 00:34:54.809 you've touched on that a bit you talked about how staff would use 592 00:34:54.809 --> 00:34:58.259 it and how you know now with Arbor Reading Adventures where 593 00:34:58.259 --> 00:35:02.189 families are coming in, but um—I guess I would ask like how—yeah, 594 00:35:02.879 --> 00:35:07.259 who uses the library and how, how have—how have patrons—? How 595 00:35:07.259 --> 00:35:09.629 have the ways that patrons utilize the library changed over 596 00:35:09.629 --> 00:35:10.889 the years? Has it changed? 597 00:35:11.970 --> 00:35:14.820 Rita Hassert: Yeah, it's an interesting thing to think about 598 00:35:14.820 --> 00:35:20.400 because, well, prior to email, people would contact us. We 599 00:35:20.400 --> 00:35:22.740 still have in- person visitors. So we would have in-person 600 00:35:22.740 --> 00:35:26.430 visitors, you know, certainly phone calls. And that continues. 601 00:35:27.810 --> 00:35:29.820 We'd occasionally—I'm kind of smiling—we've occasionally had 602 00:35:29.820 --> 00:35:33.390 correspondence. So I do remember this was a number of years ago, 603 00:35:34.410 --> 00:35:37.260 getting a question and I remember looking at the address 604 00:35:37.260 --> 00:35:39.780 thinking, that's a really unusual address. And so I 605 00:35:39.780 --> 00:35:42.330 responded, I sent some photocopy, you know, we were 606 00:35:42.450 --> 00:35:45.180 doing a lot more photocopying then too. We do far less 607 00:35:45.180 --> 00:35:48.330 photocopying, but a lot of photocopying, photocopied some 608 00:35:48.510 --> 00:35:52.320 things and sent them, person responded. And somewhere in the 609 00:35:52.320 --> 00:35:59.610 letter said, you know, I—anyway, he was in prison. And so he, and 610 00:35:59.610 --> 00:36:03.840 he said something like, "I'm in a facility. And, you know, our 611 00:36:03.840 --> 00:36:07.530 library is largely law related," you know, because prison 612 00:36:07.530 --> 00:36:11.760 libraries often are—have topics of things related to law. And I 613 00:36:11.760 --> 00:36:13.980 was like, oh, that's so interesting. And I just love 614 00:36:13.980 --> 00:36:15.630 that, that he was, you know, I was able to send them 615 00:36:15.630 --> 00:36:17.760 information. I think it was something a question—I feel like 616 00:36:17.760 --> 00:36:19.860 it was a question about buckeyes or something. And I was like, 617 00:36:19.860 --> 00:36:23.400 that was so wonderful. But, but I love and so—so the contact was 618 00:36:23.400 --> 00:36:29.220 that way. Some—I don't want to—I was thinking about that as it 619 00:36:29.250 --> 00:36:32.460 is. It wasn't that everyone came on site, there were people that 620 00:36:32.460 --> 00:36:36.570 would call us, we would, you know, routinely send photocopies 621 00:36:36.570 --> 00:36:40.740 and information to people. So the transition as technologies 622 00:36:41.010 --> 00:36:45.180 changed, I feel some of those barriers are lowered for sure. 623 00:36:45.780 --> 00:36:49.830 So it's easier, you can email now and also sending things. 624 00:36:49.830 --> 00:36:52.980 It's not photocopying, and putting a stamp, you know, 625 00:36:52.980 --> 00:36:56.400 taking it to the mailroom, and you'll get it in five to seven 626 00:36:56.400 --> 00:36:58.890 business days or something, however long it took to mail. So 627 00:36:58.890 --> 00:37:02.490 that's changed. Love that. I mean, some of it, it does feel a 628 00:37:02.490 --> 00:37:04.770 little bit like the Jetsons, I have to say, you know, it's a 629 00:37:04.770 --> 00:37:07.860 little like science fiction, like, I can scan it and send it 630 00:37:07.860 --> 00:37:11.790 right away. That's wonderful. I love and I feel like that, you 631 00:37:12.030 --> 00:37:15.450 know—at the Rotary, I just talked to the director at 632 00:37:15.450 --> 00:37:17.970 Wheaton Public Library, and I said, "You know, libraries are 633 00:37:17.970 --> 00:37:20.730 so powerful." I feel like that's one of our like—if we had to 634 00:37:20.730 --> 00:37:24.510 have, you know, our superpowers, you know, the way we can reduce 635 00:37:24.510 --> 00:37:27.240 those barriers, hopefully and send things out. I think that's 636 00:37:27.240 --> 00:37:32.490 remarkable. So that has changed for sure. How—and also 637 00:37:32.490 --> 00:37:37.590 discoverability. You know, I think previously we talked a 638 00:37:37.590 --> 00:37:39.990 little bit about the development of ACORN [Arboretum COllections 639 00:37:39.990 --> 00:37:43.170 and Resources Nexus], but the idea of more of our resources 640 00:37:43.200 --> 00:37:47.010 are visible to a greater audience, for sure. And so two 641 00:37:47.010 --> 00:37:52.380 stories that I've started to tell—one story is a gentleman 642 00:37:52.800 --> 00:37:57.900 within this past year. He just did a Google search. He searched 643 00:37:57.900 --> 00:38:01.530 for his dad's name. His dad—his father had been dead for a 644 00:38:01.530 --> 00:38:07.860 number of years. His father was a minister at a small church in 645 00:38:07.860 --> 00:38:11.070 Wisconsin. His father had exchanged letters with Jens 646 00:38:11.070 --> 00:38:15.060 Jensen. Jens Jensen is a landscape architect who worked 647 00:38:15.060 --> 00:38:18.360 not only in the Chicago area, he worked throughout the United 648 00:38:18.360 --> 00:38:21.810 States, and then also developed The Clearing in Ellison Bay, 649 00:38:21.810 --> 00:38:27.600 Wisconsin. So he contacted us and said, "I noticed you have a 650 00:38:27.600 --> 00:38:30.330 couple of letters that my dad has written. Could you tell me 651 00:38:30.330 --> 00:38:33.000 about them?" And so I looked them up and they were letters. 652 00:38:33.420 --> 00:38:38.160 He—his father had written to Jensen asking if he would advise 653 00:38:38.160 --> 00:38:42.090 him on the landscape around not only the church but also 654 00:38:42.120 --> 00:38:44.820 around—I don't know if it's called the rectory—or the home 655 00:38:44.820 --> 00:38:48.240 where the where the minister lived. He wanted some advice and 656 00:38:48.240 --> 00:38:53.100 Jensen—they exchanged some letters. This gentleman—I'm not, 657 00:38:53.370 --> 00:38:55.770 I'm not sure I didn't ask him. But I don't know that he knew 658 00:38:55.770 --> 00:38:58.680 The Morton Arboretum. He might have heard of the Arboretum. I'd 659 00:38:58.680 --> 00:39:00.630 love to think he heard the Sterling Morton Library, but I'm 660 00:39:00.630 --> 00:39:04.020 not convinced. He did a Google search. And he found his 661 00:39:04.020 --> 00:39:08.010 father's name. I was thrilled to send him the letters, to scan 662 00:39:08.010 --> 00:39:10.410 the letters and send them to him. I mean, totally thrilled. 663 00:39:10.410 --> 00:39:12.630 And then he passed them on to his sister, he had no ex—you 664 00:39:12.930 --> 00:39:15.840 know, when he said, "I just did a Google search, and I found 665 00:39:15.870 --> 00:39:18.960 him" and you know, he just wanted to know more. Just in the 666 00:39:18.960 --> 00:39:22.770 past two weeks, another similar story like that. A landscape 667 00:39:22.770 --> 00:39:26.190 architect in Chicago. She's researching, I think, a park, 668 00:39:26.220 --> 00:39:31.170 maybe in Northbrook. And again, she searched the—I think the 669 00:39:31.170 --> 00:39:34.500 landscape architect at the park, and she came across that we had 670 00:39:34.500 --> 00:39:37.800 a letter exchanged with Jens Jensen, you know, from this 671 00:39:37.800 --> 00:39:41.850 gentleman, and she wanted a copy of it. So I feel like one of the 672 00:39:41.850 --> 00:39:45.960 things that has really—one of the monumental changes in my 673 00:39:45.960 --> 00:39:50.100 mind is increased discoverability increased access 674 00:39:50.400 --> 00:39:51.150 increased— 675 00:39:52.620 --> 00:39:55.530 And we have, we have an opportunity to share things in 676 00:39:55.530 --> 00:40:01.260 new and different ways. One of the things prior to some of 677 00:40:01.260 --> 00:40:05.490 these technological changes, maybe we were, we knew more 678 00:40:05.490 --> 00:40:08.640 about like who was using our collections, which is, which is 679 00:40:08.640 --> 00:40:13.890 fine. But if, if this means that I mean someone right now in 680 00:40:13.890 --> 00:40:18.630 Idaho or Taiwan could be using something in our collection, 681 00:40:18.630 --> 00:40:22.440 reading some correspondence. I think that's powerful. You know, 682 00:40:22.440 --> 00:40:26.970 I honestly, I think that's, and that's a dramatic change. So as 683 00:40:26.970 --> 00:40:30.660 I said, prior, we had kind of more, I would say, traditional, 684 00:40:30.660 --> 00:40:33.330 although we had people who phoned in questions and 685 00:40:33.330 --> 00:40:37.530 correspondence. Now there's an opportunity for the end user to 686 00:40:37.530 --> 00:40:40.950 discover things independently of us, which I think is really 687 00:40:40.950 --> 00:40:45.960 exciting, rather than having us translate what they're looking 688 00:40:45.960 --> 00:40:49.170 for, and looking at the collection they can, that gives 689 00:40:49.170 --> 00:40:53.130 them independence. And I think that's powerful. And I think 690 00:40:53.130 --> 00:40:57.060 that's, you know, as I said, the Joy Morton story with the book. 691 00:40:57.600 --> 00:41:01.680 I think that's continuing Mr. Morton saying, "Yeah, take the 692 00:41:01.680 --> 00:41:04.650 book. Come back and use some other things." That's great. And 693 00:41:04.650 --> 00:41:09.030 I think it continues today and into the future, too. So I feel 694 00:41:09.030 --> 00:41:12.750 like that so. So the identity user, in some cases have 695 00:41:12.750 --> 00:41:16.050 changed. In some cases, we don't know the identity anymore, 696 00:41:16.080 --> 00:41:16.440 right? 697 00:41:16.440 --> 00:41:16.680 Kristin Arnold: Yeah. 698 00:41:16.680 --> 00:41:19.350 Rita Hassert: So I can only imagine. And so when you look at 699 00:41:19.530 --> 00:41:24.930 Google Analytics, and you try to understand what, what resources 700 00:41:24.930 --> 00:41:28.050 being looked at, and things, you know, we're not going to really 701 00:41:28.050 --> 00:41:28.590 know the people— 702 00:41:28.770 --> 00:41:31.110 Kristin Arnold: Or why they're looking for that. Why was this 703 00:41:31.110 --> 00:41:35.340 gentleman, you know, Googling this, this reverand's name? 704 00:41:35.340 --> 00:41:37.260 Well, it's because it's his father's family history. But 705 00:41:37.260 --> 00:41:40.260 then this other person was, did you say she was writing a book 706 00:41:40.440 --> 00:41:40.470 on—? 707 00:41:40.500 --> 00:41:43.050 Rita Hassert: Yeah, she's, she's doing research on the—yeah. 708 00:41:43.440 --> 00:41:45.060 Kristin Arnold: —doing research, you know, those are different 709 00:41:45.660 --> 00:41:46.920 angles that you'd come at? 710 00:41:46.950 --> 00:41:47.310 Rita Hassert: Yeah, 711 00:41:47.910 --> 00:41:47.940 Kristin Arnold: —reasons. 712 00:41:48.480 --> 00:41:50.730 Rita Hassert: But they're the people who made contact. Not 713 00:41:50.760 --> 00:41:54.960 everyone—I could also imagine someone using resources in ACORN 714 00:41:54.960 --> 00:41:57.810 and not needing to make contact. They find what they need. 715 00:41:57.810 --> 00:41:58.530 Kristin Arnold: They find what they need and— 716 00:41:58.560 --> 00:42:00.480 Rita Hassert: Yeah. Things related to May [Theilgaard] 717 00:42:00.480 --> 00:42:03.390 Watts, we have far more things on May Watts, so people could be 718 00:42:03.420 --> 00:42:06.270 relatively independent user when it comes to things related to 719 00:42:06.270 --> 00:42:11.790 Mrs. Watts. So, but I think, and I think that's great. I think 720 00:42:11.790 --> 00:42:16.500 however people use things in the collection, I, you know, I like 721 00:42:16.500 --> 00:42:19.140 to say it expands our four walls, it really it kind of—the 722 00:42:19.530 --> 00:42:22.080 walls flatten, we don't have those walls anymore, and people 723 00:42:22.080 --> 00:42:25.140 can have access. So I think—and that's been really one of the 724 00:42:25.170 --> 00:42:29.100 really significant changes, since I've started here, I would 725 00:42:29.100 --> 00:42:29.490 say. 726 00:42:31.320 --> 00:42:34.710 Kristin Arnold: And so I know you've, you've mentioned some of 727 00:42:34.710 --> 00:42:37.170 these, as we've talked through other questions, but were there 728 00:42:37.170 --> 00:42:40.260 any other major projects or acquisitions that had a 729 00:42:40.260 --> 00:42:42.930 significant impact on the library? I know we talked about 730 00:42:42.930 --> 00:42:48.150 the addition of Special Collections addition—the vault. 731 00:42:48.840 --> 00:42:54.180 But what other major projects have taken place during your 732 00:42:54.180 --> 00:42:54.750 time here? 733 00:42:55.050 --> 00:42:57.840 Rita Hassert: So we've had a couple of different—they're all 734 00:42:57.840 --> 00:43:02.850 kind of, kind of going in the same direction. So we had 735 00:43:02.850 --> 00:43:06.450 something called a retrospective cataloging project. So for many 736 00:43:06.450 --> 00:43:12.990 years, for our circulating and our rare collection, cards were 737 00:43:12.990 --> 00:43:15.750 acquired from the Library of Congress. You'd request cards 738 00:43:15.750 --> 00:43:18.660 and the Library of Congress would print them and they would 739 00:43:18.660 --> 00:43:21.360 send them in a box. And this is before my time, but that's how 740 00:43:21.360 --> 00:43:23.880 they acquired catalog cards. So that's how you accessed your 741 00:43:23.880 --> 00:43:30.960 collection. And then, gradually, with the advent or the adoption 742 00:43:30.990 --> 00:43:35.490 of OCLC, we started to catalog things within OCLC. And so we 743 00:43:35.490 --> 00:43:37.830 were producing cards that way. We weren't getting them from 744 00:43:37.830 --> 00:43:41.280 Library of Congress, they're coming from OCLC. But then we 745 00:43:41.280 --> 00:43:44.580 decided we wanted to join—well, we started to talk about an 746 00:43:44.580 --> 00:43:47.640 online catalog and how we would navigate that. We could have had 747 00:43:47.640 --> 00:43:51.240 a standalone online catalog, but we decided we wanted to join 748 00:43:51.240 --> 00:43:56.340 SWAN, which is a regional consortium, about 100 749 00:43:56.790 --> 00:43:59.910 libraries—many publics, some academics, some specials. So we 750 00:43:59.910 --> 00:44:04.980 decided to join that. And so, we—so some things were in OCLC. 751 00:44:05.130 --> 00:44:08.790 So those could just be uploaded into SWAN, but the bulk of the 752 00:44:08.790 --> 00:44:16.260 collection had only print cards that were linked to those items. 753 00:44:16.290 --> 00:44:20.790 And so we had—we actually—it was a grant-funded project. We had 754 00:44:20.820 --> 00:44:25.590 several part-time people. You know, I hate to say re-catalog, 755 00:44:25.590 --> 00:44:27.990 but they cataloged the collection, entering it into 756 00:44:27.990 --> 00:44:32.340 OCLC so could be added to SWAN. So that was a big project. So 757 00:44:32.340 --> 00:44:35.220 that made again, it's all kind of in the march of 758 00:44:35.220 --> 00:44:39.270 discoverability and visibility. So, so that was a big project. 759 00:44:39.330 --> 00:44:44.070 We also had an art cataloging project. So for many years, the 760 00:44:44.070 --> 00:44:47.580 art collection has—had been developed and grown here at the 761 00:44:47.580 --> 00:44:52.320 Arboretum. The person who worked very closely with it was Nancy 762 00:44:52.320 --> 00:44:58.440 Hart. And I think as she was getting closer to retirement, 763 00:44:58.440 --> 00:45:01.890 there was more concern about, again, retrievability. She'd 764 00:45:01.890 --> 00:45:04.110 worked very closely with it. There were several other 765 00:45:04.140 --> 00:45:07.560 part-time people working on the collection, but wanting to make 766 00:45:07.560 --> 00:45:11.940 sure that, again, future generations. It's not just based 767 00:45:11.940 --> 00:45:16.110 on Nancy's memory, but we have systems in place that things are 768 00:45:16.110 --> 00:45:18.810 retrievable. So we had an art cataloging project that was 769 00:45:18.810 --> 00:45:22.110 grant-funded as well. And we hired several people. And they 770 00:45:22.110 --> 00:45:27.180 cataloged a portion of the collection. The Special 771 00:45:27.180 --> 00:45:29.820 Collections addition, which we've talked about. The other, 772 00:45:29.850 --> 00:45:34.500 you know, I was thinking, monumental, I think for us, 773 00:45:34.500 --> 00:45:37.830 well, the acquisitions of various special collections. You 774 00:45:37.830 --> 00:45:40.170 know, I mentioned about Suz—during Suzette's time, the 775 00:45:40.170 --> 00:45:43.560 rare book collection, the art collection, and then that 776 00:45:43.560 --> 00:45:47.040 continued even when Suzette was no longer chair of the Board of 777 00:45:47.040 --> 00:45:51.030 Trustees. Mr. Haffner very much supported our purchasing of 778 00:45:51.030 --> 00:45:55.050 items for Special Collections. We also received significant 779 00:45:55.050 --> 00:45:57.810 collections like the Jensen Collection, I think beginning in 780 00:45:57.810 --> 00:46:01.560 the '60s and onward—a lot of photographs, correspondence, 781 00:46:01.560 --> 00:46:05.010 landscape plans related to Jens Jensen and his son-in-law, 782 00:46:05.040 --> 00:46:08.700 Marshall Johnson. And then the development of ACORN, I think, 783 00:46:08.700 --> 00:46:14.670 is another major project. And again, in that spirit of 784 00:46:14.670 --> 00:46:18.930 increasing discoverability, but all these collections—special 785 00:46:18.930 --> 00:46:21.300 collections—that we've had had their own unique finding aids, 786 00:46:21.810 --> 00:46:26.130 bringing those together in one platform, standardizing 787 00:46:26.130 --> 00:46:30.600 language, you know, taxonomies. So we're, we're describing every 788 00:46:30.630 --> 00:46:33.570 Arboretum landmark in the same way, like the Four Columns, or 789 00:46:33.570 --> 00:46:40.590 the Four Pillars, and then being able to preserve and present 790 00:46:40.830 --> 00:46:44.910 digital files and digital images of the, of the collection 791 00:46:44.910 --> 00:46:49.560 through ACORN, I think is another significant, significant 792 00:46:49.590 --> 00:46:55.980 accomplishment. During the past, I will not quite—or I guess, not 793 00:46:55.980 --> 00:46:59.190 quite decade, although we talked about it a lot longer than that, 794 00:46:59.190 --> 00:47:00.720 but it finally came to fruition. 795 00:47:00.780 --> 00:47:03.570 Kristin Arnold: Yeah. And can you remind me when ACORN—maybe 796 00:47:03.570 --> 00:47:04.620 when it was actually public? 797 00:47:04.860 --> 00:47:07.950 Rita Hassert: I think, yeah, I should verify this, I think our 798 00:47:07.950 --> 00:47:16.920 soft launch was in 2015, I believe. And it was gradual. And 799 00:47:16.920 --> 00:47:20.940 it's interesting. Now we're a little over 84,000 objects 800 00:47:20.940 --> 00:47:25.080 described, I think something like 44,000 photographs. And 801 00:47:25.080 --> 00:47:29.040 we've received collections from Collections, some volunteers 802 00:47:29.040 --> 00:47:32.820 have contributed images to it as well. And so it was funny when, 803 00:47:32.850 --> 00:47:36.900 when it was 10 or 12 items, you know, describing things was 804 00:47:36.900 --> 00:47:39.420 relatively easy. You just have 10 or 12 items, right? It was 805 00:47:39.420 --> 00:47:44.610 very small. And then gradually it's grown to, you know, it, you 806 00:47:44.610 --> 00:47:47.460 know, I don't know, I don't want to predict how soon we'll reach 807 00:47:47.490 --> 00:47:51.420 100,000 objects, but it's going quickly, you know, things are 808 00:47:51.420 --> 00:47:55.260 growing. So, yeah, but it's, but and what I, as I said, what I 809 00:47:55.260 --> 00:48:01.620 value about it is how it's, it's open to all, how it supports 810 00:48:01.620 --> 00:48:05.340 staff work, as well as—so a lot of our earlier conversations 811 00:48:05.340 --> 00:48:08.580 about ACORN were, "Well, the Centennial is coming, people are 812 00:48:08.580 --> 00:48:11.370 gonna want historic images." Well, the Centennial is here. 813 00:48:11.580 --> 00:48:14.190 And they do want images, and they're available, you know, so 814 00:48:14.190 --> 00:48:18.150 I think that's been a benefit. And then, and then also ACORN 815 00:48:18.600 --> 00:48:22.260 allows us to gather and tell stories and capture those 816 00:48:22.260 --> 00:48:27.090 stories, whether they're audio or video or written stories. So 817 00:48:27.090 --> 00:48:32.160 I think I think it offers a lot of, it's been a quite a 818 00:48:32.160 --> 00:48:33.210 development for us. 819 00:48:34.860 --> 00:48:37.560 Kristin Arnold: So how does the Sterling Morton Library support 820 00:48:37.590 --> 00:48:41.190 or influence the Arboretum, but also the broader community? I 821 00:48:41.190 --> 00:48:43.140 know we've talked a little bit about, you know, doing 822 00:48:43.410 --> 00:48:47.700 presentations, and it definitely sounds like a lot of the, you 823 00:48:47.700 --> 00:48:53.580 know, the collections, you said are, are really meant to support 824 00:48:53.610 --> 00:48:56.190 the work being done at the Arboretum, whether it's the 825 00:48:56.190 --> 00:49:01.770 Children's Garden or journals for staff to reference, but I 826 00:49:01.770 --> 00:49:04.890 guess are there any other ways that the Sterling Morton Library 827 00:49:04.890 --> 00:49:08.310 supports and—or influences the Arboretum? Or the broader 828 00:49:08.310 --> 00:49:08.880 community? 829 00:49:08.940 --> 00:49:11.430 Rita Hassert: Yeah. You know, sometimes when I give a tour, I 830 00:49:11.430 --> 00:49:15.660 start out saying that—something along the lines of "I like to 831 00:49:15.660 --> 00:49:18.750 think of the library as the very heart of The Morton Arboretum," 832 00:49:19.080 --> 00:49:21.180 and that I usually say, "But some people might think we're 833 00:49:21.180 --> 00:49:24.240 the spleen or the pancreas." I'm not sure if we can capture 834 00:49:24.240 --> 00:49:29.280 heart, but, but there is, you know, even even though I say 835 00:49:29.280 --> 00:49:36.270 that, and it seems vaguely silly, I do think that by the 836 00:49:36.300 --> 00:49:44.850 ability to capture memories and capture stories and—and preserve 837 00:49:44.850 --> 00:49:49.050 them and save them, and also, and I haven't really talked 838 00:49:49.050 --> 00:49:51.360 about this, but that the idea that the stories are going to be 839 00:49:51.360 --> 00:49:54.420 available in the future. So you know, oftentimes I say, like 840 00:49:54.420 --> 00:49:58.500 seven generations from now. So it's not like we're just, we're 841 00:49:58.500 --> 00:50:02.820 just hearing Clarence Godshalk's words, but we want people around 842 00:50:02.820 --> 00:50:07.830 the world and into the future to hear them. I feel like the 843 00:50:07.830 --> 00:50:12.480 support and influence, and I think it goes in tandem with the 844 00:50:12.480 --> 00:50:16.470 influence of the Arboretum. But I think it's profound. I think 845 00:50:16.500 --> 00:50:22.260 this is where the library through the archives and other 846 00:50:22.260 --> 00:50:29.550 collections has the ability to, to capture these, you know, I 847 00:50:29.550 --> 00:50:32.370 kind of talked about standing on the shoulders of giants, but 848 00:50:32.550 --> 00:50:37.380 capturing these giants' stories, capturing things and then 849 00:50:37.410 --> 00:50:41.580 sharing them with a broader, greater community, I think the 850 00:50:41.580 --> 00:50:45.450 library in the past—at least past decade—has worked very hard 851 00:50:45.450 --> 00:50:50.670 to, you know—talked a little bit about reducing barriers—but to, 852 00:50:50.910 --> 00:50:56.040 to try and to increase access, to, also to encourage more 853 00:50:56.040 --> 00:51:01.560 voices to be heard. So working with staff related to diversity, 854 00:51:01.560 --> 00:51:06.030 inclusion, making sure that we're hearing broader voices, 855 00:51:06.060 --> 00:51:09.720 and more voices kind of capturing those stories. So I do 856 00:51:09.720 --> 00:51:14.790 feel, you know, I kind of sometimes say that we're 857 00:51:14.790 --> 00:51:19.500 changing the world, one tree at a time, but to, to whether it's 858 00:51:19.860 --> 00:51:23.070 a family coming in for a children's story, a gardener 859 00:51:23.070 --> 00:51:28.140 hesitant about pruning and would like a book, a staff member 860 00:51:28.140 --> 00:51:31.230 who's putting a video together who needs some historic images, 861 00:51:31.230 --> 00:51:34.230 I mean, it kind of comes in all shapes and sizes. And that's 862 00:51:34.230 --> 00:51:37.260 honestly one of the pleasures of the job, you know, our 863 00:51:37.290 --> 00:51:42.510 positions—we get to partner and collaborate with people on a 864 00:51:42.510 --> 00:51:45.600 host of things. I mean, you know, it's kind of when people 865 00:51:45.600 --> 00:51:47.670 say, like, "What's your typical day?" And it's like, "Well, 866 00:51:47.700 --> 00:51:50.400 there's no typical day." You know, but I mean, it does allow 867 00:51:50.400 --> 00:51:55.260 you and even, even, and I try to share it with volunteers as best 868 00:51:55.260 --> 00:52:01.620 I can. But every act is building kind of this pyramid that we're 869 00:52:01.620 --> 00:52:05.400 putting together, you know, that this idea that every act, 870 00:52:05.400 --> 00:52:10.440 whether it's shelving books, or adding metadata to photographs 871 00:52:10.440 --> 00:52:14.130 that have been uploaded, that's helping people that you can't 872 00:52:14.130 --> 00:52:16.650 even see or imagine, you know, and I'm— 873 00:52:16.650 --> 00:52:17.850 Kristin Arnold: You don't know what they might use it for 874 00:52:18.150 --> 00:52:18.180 either— 875 00:52:18.960 --> 00:52:19.530 Rita Hassert: No—at all. 876 00:52:19.530 --> 00:52:21.360 Kristin Arnold: And so that's really, that's, that's kind of 877 00:52:21.360 --> 00:52:22.260 exciting to— 878 00:52:22.290 --> 00:52:23.100 Rita Hassert: Well, that's the thing— 879 00:52:23.100 --> 00:52:25.020 Kristin Arnold: —that you don't, you don't know how someone might 880 00:52:25.020 --> 00:52:27.780 use that photograph, or that letter, or something. 881 00:52:27.810 --> 00:52:30.750 Rita Hassert: Absolutely, totally. And you, you don't 882 00:52:30.750 --> 00:52:34.110 know. And it's not that you don't care, you just in some 883 00:52:34.110 --> 00:52:37.470 ways might never find out. But as I said, I'm fine with that. I 884 00:52:37.470 --> 00:52:41.610 just know that, that those words are available and accessible. 885 00:52:42.060 --> 00:52:47.340 And sometimes, you know, the knowledge in the world, people 886 00:52:47.340 --> 00:52:50.310 talk about like information a lot more than they used to, you 887 00:52:50.310 --> 00:52:53.970 know, sometimes it seems really closed. And I feel like, this is 888 00:52:53.970 --> 00:52:58.710 like the opposite, what we're doing. We're trying to—the goal 889 00:52:58.710 --> 00:53:02.190 is to try to reveal more and share more as best we can. And I 890 00:53:02.190 --> 00:53:06.000 know we work with copyright and permissions and things like 891 00:53:06.000 --> 00:53:08.880 that. And we, we wouldn't want to, you know, sensitive 892 00:53:08.880 --> 00:53:13.050 information, but, but for most things, if we're able to share I 893 00:53:13.050 --> 00:53:15.810 mean, I think that's that spirit. And I think that's kind 894 00:53:15.810 --> 00:53:19.530 of like, kind of the opposite to other things to control things. 895 00:53:19.530 --> 00:53:19.830 Kristin Arnold: Yeah. 896 00:53:20.820 --> 00:53:23.970 Rita Hassert: And to make it equitable, to allow acc—to 897 00:53:23.970 --> 00:53:28.440 encourage access and make it equitable, that others will have 898 00:53:28.440 --> 00:53:32.670 access to it, not just limited people would have access. 899 00:53:34.380 --> 00:53:37.230 Kristin Arnold: So before I ask you my last question, I just 900 00:53:37.230 --> 00:53:40.530 wanted to make sure, were there any other major events or 901 00:53:40.530 --> 00:53:44.400 projects or changes that occurred while you've been 902 00:53:44.400 --> 00:53:46.890 working at the library that maybe we didn't touch on yet? 903 00:53:52.530 --> 00:53:56.970 Rita Hassert: Um—yeah, let me think. I feel like I've 904 00:53:57.240 --> 00:53:59.790 mentioned the highlights. 905 00:54:02.040 --> 00:54:05.520 You know, I talked about the change. Well, I, you know, 906 00:54:05.520 --> 00:54:10.680 talked about the changes and as digital content has become 907 00:54:10.680 --> 00:54:15.240 available. And I think that in the future that will continue. 908 00:54:16.470 --> 00:54:20.220 You know, but we have our feet firmly planted in both worlds. 909 00:54:20.220 --> 00:54:26.160 We have our feet in the digital world, but we also have our, our 910 00:54:26.160 --> 00:54:32.970 minds also on the print or the, the artifact world too and so 911 00:54:33.000 --> 00:54:36.480 that's, that's always that, you know, sometimes I've described 912 00:54:36.480 --> 00:54:41.310 it as a tight rope. You want to protect collections, you want to 913 00:54:41.310 --> 00:54:44.460 limit light exposure and temperature, humidity controls, 914 00:54:44.520 --> 00:54:48.000 and at the same time, you want more people to have access to 915 00:54:48.000 --> 00:54:51.690 it. So you know, you're always kind of navigating that. You 916 00:54:51.690 --> 00:54:55.470 know, making sure that you're not—I don't want to say 917 00:54:55.500 --> 00:54:58.950 overprotecting—but sheltering it in a way that no one has access 918 00:54:58.950 --> 00:55:02.700 to it and maybe no one will become interested in it, but 919 00:55:02.700 --> 00:55:06.660 you—so you want to reveal that as much as possible to the best. 920 00:55:06.720 --> 00:55:11.370 And that's when, sometimes when digital surrogates are the most 921 00:55:11.370 --> 00:55:13.680 helpful, because then you can reveal things. But I— 922 00:55:13.680 --> 00:55:14.850 Kristin Arnold: Well, also protecting the original— 923 00:55:14.880 --> 00:55:18.660 Rita Hassert: —yeah, yeah. But, but I think—I feel like, you 924 00:55:18.660 --> 00:55:21.690 know, in parallel with the Arboretum, we've, you know, 925 00:55:21.720 --> 00:55:26.970 we've advanced and, and things have changed. We've all had to 926 00:55:26.970 --> 00:55:33.180 pivot as programs changed, or research interests, and topics 927 00:55:33.180 --> 00:55:37.740 have changed and subject focus. You know, we've also had to, you 928 00:55:37.740 --> 00:55:41.070 know, to the best of our ability within, within budget and things 929 00:55:41.070 --> 00:55:43.680 we've, we've had to change, but I feel like some of the things 930 00:55:43.680 --> 00:55:46.350 that I've mentioned are probably some of the larger 931 00:55:46.350 --> 00:55:49.260 accomplishments. And then there have been lots of other 932 00:55:49.260 --> 00:55:54.150 victories. I mean, they might not be headlines, but they're 933 00:55:54.150 --> 00:55:57.210 still, they're still all contributing, you know, every 934 00:55:57.210 --> 00:56:00.870 time someone contacts us saying, "I have some photographs," you 935 00:56:00.870 --> 00:56:03.810 know, or "Here's a letter would you be interested in it?" That 936 00:56:03.810 --> 00:56:07.830 builds to the bigger community. So I feel fortunate that we've 937 00:56:07.830 --> 00:56:09.450 had so many opportunities. 938 00:56:10.470 --> 00:56:11.670 Kristin Arnold: And so I think you've kind of touched on my 939 00:56:11.670 --> 00:56:15.390 last question, but I just wanted to pick your brain a bit to see 940 00:56:15.390 --> 00:56:18.720 if you had any suggestions or predictions of how you think the 941 00:56:18.720 --> 00:56:20.640 library might develop in the future. 942 00:56:21.420 --> 00:56:26.190 Rita Hassert: I think technology will continue. And I don't mean 943 00:56:26.190 --> 00:56:30.330 this in a negative way, but will continue to challenge us, 944 00:56:30.360 --> 00:56:36.270 inspire us, change us, I think, and also, you know, even, even 945 00:56:36.270 --> 00:56:40.740 when, you know, like, our first website was launched, well, no 946 00:56:40.740 --> 00:56:44.190 one was using their phone to access it, you know, I mean, so. 947 00:56:45.390 --> 00:56:49.230 So that's—so first technology, and there's, there's websites, 948 00:56:49.230 --> 00:56:52.860 and there's digital content and now we can carry it in our 949 00:56:52.860 --> 00:56:57.240 pockets. And so what's the future? I, you know, I am not, 950 00:56:57.330 --> 00:56:59.730 you know, I was—I'm still waiting for the roast beef pill 951 00:56:59.730 --> 00:57:02.820 from the Jetsons. So I don't know that I can predict. But I 952 00:57:02.820 --> 00:57:06.780 do think how we connect with technology, how we use it will 953 00:57:06.780 --> 00:57:12.870 continue to evolve and change, our expectations are changing. I 954 00:57:12.870 --> 00:57:19.740 think other challenges are, you know, whether it's digital 955 00:57:19.860 --> 00:57:26.580 technology, or physical print collections, or artwork, how we 956 00:57:26.580 --> 00:57:30.180 conserve them, preserve them. The—I'm not pretending that 957 00:57:30.180 --> 00:57:33.540 digital collections will have no issues of preservation, because 958 00:57:33.540 --> 00:57:36.510 I think they will. And we'll have to migrate things. But, but 959 00:57:36.510 --> 00:57:40.110 I also think, physical items, too. And so kind of making those 960 00:57:40.110 --> 00:57:43.350 determinations and using the resources we have to the best of 961 00:57:43.350 --> 00:57:47.160 our ability to, you know, so that future generations can have 962 00:57:47.160 --> 00:57:54.870 access. I think those are probably the larger ones. I 963 00:57:54.900 --> 00:58:00.150 would imagine, we will have, at some point, a new president and 964 00:58:00.150 --> 00:58:04.770 CEO. And so it'll be interesting to see if there are any changes. 965 00:58:06.360 --> 00:58:10.410 Even just—and not specifically or it could be related to the 966 00:58:10.410 --> 00:58:14.370 mission, but maybe there'll be a different focus or a different, 967 00:58:14.550 --> 00:58:17.640 you know, I mean, there's, there have been changes through the 968 00:58:17.640 --> 00:58:22.350 years. And so will there be, what will that bring to us? And 969 00:58:22.350 --> 00:58:28.260 so, I think that'll be, that'll, you know, the library will, will 970 00:58:28.500 --> 00:58:33.720 want to not just respond, but to be assisting with that. So I 971 00:58:33.720 --> 00:58:36.810 think there'll, there'll be things like some of those 972 00:58:36.810 --> 00:58:42.060 changes. But you know, it's always—I often say, when I speak 973 00:58:42.060 --> 00:58:45.780 to groups, but I feel like we're at one of the best points 974 00:58:45.780 --> 00:58:50.670 because we have these amazing digital resources, the idea that 975 00:58:50.670 --> 00:58:53.940 I can scan a letter to someone who didn't even know we existed 976 00:58:53.940 --> 00:58:57.960 and send him a letter his father wrote, that's amazing. And yet, 977 00:58:58.290 --> 00:59:01.740 you know, you can go in the vault, and you can pick up a 978 00:59:01.740 --> 00:59:05.280 letter that Joy Morton wrote, or you can open a book that was 979 00:59:05.280 --> 00:59:08.550 published in 1481. And you can turn the page. And that's a 980 00:59:08.550 --> 00:59:13.320 remarkable time to be able to do both. I don't feel like we have 981 00:59:13.320 --> 00:59:19.860 to choose one over the other. We just have to work at ensuring 982 00:59:19.860 --> 00:59:25.050 that all of these different avenues of access remain open 983 00:59:25.050 --> 00:59:30.390 and viable, I think, to the best of our ability. So the future is 984 00:59:30.390 --> 00:59:32.310 going to be great. That's what I'm thinking. 985 00:59:33.120 --> 00:59:35.160 Kristin Arnold: Well, thank you so much, Rita, for your time and 986 00:59:35.160 --> 00:59:38.730 sharing your experiences and how you've observed the library 987 00:59:38.730 --> 00:59:42.480 change over the years. It's been very informative, and I really 988 00:59:42.480 --> 00:59:46.770 enjoyed hearing your stories, and how the library has, has 989 00:59:46.770 --> 00:59:47.970 developed over time. 990 00:59:48.090 --> 00:59:50.460 Rita Hassert: Well, thank you. It's been a pleasure. It's kind 991 00:59:50.460 --> 00:59:52.590 of fun to go in the Wayback Machine every once in a while. 992 00:59:52.590 --> 00:59:57.060 And also, I always like when you have the opportunity to talk 993 00:59:57.060 --> 00:59:59.850 about the library because it kind of—as I listened to my 994 00:59:59.850 --> 01:00:03.030 words, it's like, oh, that's right. I remember, not everyone 995 01:00:03.030 --> 01:00:05.520 would know about the walkway would they? You know, or know 996 01:00:05.520 --> 01:00:08.070 about where the entrance was and things. So it's just, it's just 997 01:00:08.070 --> 01:00:12.360 interesting to kind of be able to share and, you know, and then 998 01:00:12.360 --> 01:00:15.210 to think about the future too, to think about what what that 999 01:00:15.210 --> 01:00:17.850 might be like. So thanks. Thanks so much. I appreciate the 1000 01:00:17.850 --> 01:00:18.570 opportunity. 1001 01:00:18.600 --> 01:00:19.620 Kristin Arnold: Thank you so much, Rita.