Books flood the shelves at the Lilly Library -- skinny ones, fat ones, old ones, new ones, red ones, green ones. Some tattered with worn pages, others protected from time, confined within book boxes. \nWith 400,000 books and seven million manuscripts, Lilly Library Director Breon Mitchell expects to run into a surprise every so often.\n"There's so many stories about the books," Mitchell said. "You could tell a story about each of them."\nAt the Lilly, visitors sink into the comforts of a fantasy library -- infinite book shelves with everything from Einstein's theory on relativity to the Founding Fathers' "Federalist Papers."\nA sort of movie star sighting for avid readers, the Library boasts works from Shakespeare to Faulkner and everyone in between. But only roughly .025 percent of books are ever on display at one time.\n"That's less than one-tenth of a percent," Mitchell said, trying to calculate the number in his head.\n"There's always going to be inevitably, not hundreds, but thousands of things that are not going to be available in exhibitions."\nThough most of the Lilly's treasures remain out of sight, on one of the seven floors of book shelves, visitors can ask for any book, and a librarian will bring it to them. They can leaf through the first Arabic Bible or "The Canterbury Tales" in the Library's reading room. \n"It's not that they're hidden away -- they're all available for use," Mitchell said.\nIn fact, half of the Library's books are catalogued online through IUCAT. And every week, a staff of less than 20 works to file more. Currently, the staff has catalogued 4,738 miniature books, each no larger than 2.5 inches. That leaves only 11,262 more to go.
Unlocking the vault\nTwo vaults, one for manuscripts and the other for rare books, shelter the Lilly's most prized readings.\n"Even though everything in the Library is rare, this is the room where we keep the rarest things," \nMitchell said as he turned the combination on the lock for one of the vaults.\nA musty smell of fabric floated through the vault as Mitchell slowly turned the pages of a book with clothing samples from one of Captain Cook's voyages. \n"They're carefully preserved," he said. "It's just like they were collected yesterday."\nEven though the Lilly tries to display its collection, Mitchell said it can't legitimately exhibit books because visitors can only see the two open pages of a book.\n"It's hard to show treasures like this because the next page may be more exciting than the page before it," he said.\nThe Library changes exhibits throughout the year. Though the exhibition in the main hall -- the one welcoming visitors when they enter the museum -- only switches about every three to four months, smaller exhibits are replaced every few weeks. Currently, the museum is displaying some of its most valuable materials in the "Treasures of the Lilly Library" exhibit in the main hall. \n"It highlights things that can't be shown all the time but we think people should see," Mitchell said.\nSenior Eric Butterbaugh, who has worked at the Library for three years, began as an intern but stuck around because of the books.\n"I love the books," Butterbaugh said. "You walk down the stacks, and each of these books has its own little story and you wonder how it got there."\nNumerous private collectors donated their personal collections to the Library, which is why the Lilly carries a first-edition of "The Canterbury Tales," appraised at $7 million. For Butterbaugh, an English major, the books are priceless and the library's stacks inspire mystery.\n"When you're in the shelves and you get to see the books, you get to hold it … it's so much better, so much different," he said. "It's always fun to come across a book that you've read."\nFor some, like Curator of Manuscripts Saundra Taylor, the millions of manuscript treasures make it overwhelming to think of one favorite. But she does enjoy reading the letters from Harold Nicolson to his wife Vita Sackville-West from 1935, while he was staying with the Lindberghs during the trial of Bruno Hauptman for the kidnapping and murder of the Lindberghs' baby. \n"He reports to Vita exactly what Lindbergh is feeling and saying regarding the trial and the jury's verdict …" Taylor said.\nAnd the Nicolson letters are only the tip of the iceberg. But visitors wanting to know what's beneath the surface can sift through the material at any time, Mitchell said.\n"Anyone can literally come in off the street and use (the Library)," he said. "Everybody's got the right."\n-- Contact assistant opinion editor Asma Khalid at amkhalid@indiana.edu.
