Ten Year Plan

Whenever we want to clean the house, it’s necessary to have a party. Without that impending Saturday night deadline, I simply won’t attack the intimidating piles of books, paper and art that are strewn about the place in an order that makes no sense to anyone but me. Finding anything is an archaeological dig.

Perhaps the largest category of stuff in what I jokingly call a collection are books; I never met a book I didn’t like.* And the largest single category among my books are titles about architecture, its history and related fields. I know what’s there in general terms and many specific titles of frequent reference, but I’ve never inventoried them nor approximated their value. For me and my purposes, they have been of inestimable value and utility. So here’s the dilemma du jour: WTF do I do with them in my Ten Year Plan?

As a now-and-then visitor to our Architecture Library in Klai Hall, I sense that our students visit even less frequently than I. These lifelong companions that have served me so well have no apparent future audience. But I’m unwilling to let them simply be a part of my posthumous garage sale. So, if anyone–I mean anyone–has a suggestion for what to do with Fargo-Moorhead’s largest private architecture library, give me a call.

*This is a patent exaggeration. Despite my prurient interest in their point of view, I have never purchased a book by Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck or Ann Coulter, nor would I accept copies of any, thank you very much indeed. Far better that their caloric value be put to a higher social purpose.