{"652025":{"#nid":"652025","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Operation Book Redux: 67 years after the great book move of 1953","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EIt was certainly a different time, muses Jody Thompson, head of the Archives and Special Collections department and the Library\u0026rsquo;s preservation manager. One in which then Dean of Men, George C. Griffin, could remand the entire freshman class of 1953 to a single service project.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;This was such an interesting story in the archives, so indicative of college culture at the time\u0026rdquo; she said. \u0026ldquo;It\u0026rsquo;s just charming and kind of quirky \u0026ndash; exactly the type of thing we love about Georgia Tech history.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EOperation Books, as it was known, has all the classic elements you want \u0026ndash; rowdy students getting in *just* a little bit of trouble, the campus community coming together with a can-do attitude, and a little color to add to the history of a beloved Georgia Tech mainstay.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EAnd it\u0026rsquo;s coming back to campus Oct. 29 at noon in the courtyard of the Georgia Tech Library, between Price Gilbert and Crosland Tower, to celebrate books being back in the Library.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EOperation Books\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EIt was Thursday, Oct. 29, 1953. Hundreds of freshmen collected, milling about Cherry Street on a sunny late October morning with coffee in hand. They stood in line a quarter mile-long, ready to pass 150,000 books from the Carnegie Building, Tech\u0026rsquo;s original library, to the newly constructed Price Gilbert Memorial Library. It was a punishment for what the \u003Cem\u003EGeorgia Tech Alumnus\u003C\/em\u003E described as \u0026ldquo;pranks\u0026rdquo; during a \u0026ldquo;hyper vitiminized\u0026rdquo; pep rally after the game against Tulane.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe \u0026ldquo;shirt-tail parade,\u0026rdquo; as it was known, got so out of hand there was collateral damage to passers-by caught in the melee.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EAccording to the Oct. 14, 1953 edition of the Atlanta Journal Constitution, \u0026ldquo;Freshmen took up a collection to pay hospital expenses of a downtown theater concessions operator who was hospitalized for hysteria after rampaging students invaded the theater.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EUsing a plan developed by older Industrial Engineering students utilizing a \u0026ldquo;human chain,\u0026rdquo; the books began to move. Slowly at first, because Tech\u0026rsquo;s librarians were quite protective of the materials and training each new shift took precious time. Then human nature began to take over. There were grumbles about the plan; some broke rank in open defiance.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe plan was scrapped on the fly. A new ad hoc model was attempted. It, too, failed. Soon, plans were made to return to the original human chain option and things began to pick up again.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;It turned into a really interesting practical application of engineering to solve a real world problem,\u0026rdquo; said Alumni Historian Jennifer Rogers.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EAll told, students fell short of their lofty 150,000-title goal. Final totals of books moved were somewhere around the 55,000 to 75,000 mark. That left the rest of the collection to be moved over the weekend by Georgia Tech faculty and staff, who came in to make sure the job was done. The new library opened Monday, Nov. 2.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe Institute saved an estimated $5,000 from the effort, a little over $51,000 in today\u0026rsquo;s dollars. And according to the first-hand accounts of Operation Books \u0026ndash; including the \u003Cem\u003ETechnique\u003C\/em\u003E, \u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003EGeorgia Tech Alumnus\u003C\/em\u003E and \u003Cem\u003EAtlanta Journal Constitution\u003C\/em\u003E \u0026ndash; the hubbub took weeks to die down on campus.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EAnd there the books stayed \u0026hellip; until 1968, when the Graduate Addition, now known as Crosland Tower, sprang from atop Freshman Hill to hold the exploding print collection. Nearly 50 years later, in 2016, all print materials moved into cold storage for renovation and reimagining of both Library buildings.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EOperation Books Redux\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ENow, Friday, Oct. 29, 2021, 67 years to the day of the first Operation Books, the Library is celebrating the core collection, about 30,000 books representing each school\u0026rsquo;s most required manuscripts, moving back into the building.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThis event, held in conjunction with the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.gtalumni.org\/s\/1481\/alumni\/19\/home.aspx?gid=21\u0026amp;pgid=61\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EGeorgia Tech Alumni Association\u003C\/a\u003E and using resources furnished exclusively by the \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/library.gatech.edu\/archives\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EGeorgia Tech Archives\u003C\/a\u003E, will include a brief history of the original book passing from the Carnegie Building to Price Gilbert from Rogers (HTS 07, MS HSTS 09), Alumni historian. It starts at noon and includes the Reck, Buzz and members of the band providing fanfare for the ceremony.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EAfter remarks, feel free to join into the human chain placing the last 53 books back on the shelves of Price Gilbert for the Core Collection.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"Join Buzz, the Reck and band members Oct. 29 at noon to celebrate the core collection\u2019s return"}],"field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EIt was certainly a different time, muses Jody Thompson, head of the Archives and Special Collections department and the Library\u0026rsquo;s preservation manager. One in which then Dean of Men, George C. Griffin, could remand the entire freshman class of 1953 to a single service project.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"It was certainly a different time, muses Jody Thompson, head of the Archives and Special Collections department and the Library\u2019s preservation manager."}],"uid":"28817","created_gmt":"2021-10-25 19:13:59","changed_gmt":"2021-10-25 19:57:12","author":"Jason Wright","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2021-10-25T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2021-10-25T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"651183":{"id":"651183","type":"image","title":"Operation Books Redux","body":null,"created":"1632858053","gmt_created":"2021-09-28 19:40:53","changed":"1632858053","gmt_changed":"2021-09-28 19:40:53","alt":"Operation Books Redux Oct. 29","file":{"fid":"247076","name":"BOOK PAS REDUX.png","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/BOOK%20PAS%20REDUX.png","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/BOOK%20PAS%20REDUX.png","mime":"image\/png","size":1709452,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/BOOK%20PAS%20REDUX.png?itok=0jz4W8SL"}}},"media_ids":["651183"],"groups":[{"id":"47240","name":"Georgia Tech Library"}],"categories":[{"id":"129","name":"Institute and Campus"},{"id":"130","name":"Alumni"},{"id":"42901","name":"Community"},{"id":"133","name":"Special Events and Guest Speakers"},{"id":"134","name":"Student and Faculty"}],"keywords":[{"id":"188957","name":"Operation Books"},{"id":"188958","name":"1953"},{"id":"1205","name":"Library"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39511","name":"Public Service, Leadership, and Policy"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}