I found the Book Traces event to be a very interesting experience. I shifted through two shelves, approximately 40 books, and only found two that fit the criteria of what we were looking for. The actual experience of handling these very old books was very cool; some books that were not even a century old were already, to my surprise, falling apart. The texture of the pages was drastically different to what I am use to today and it almost made the book that much more precious. I wondered who would actually need any of these books? Some were stories, some biographies, some informational texts, but they were in the corner of this very large library in the dark. I still wonder how anyone would find any of those books relevant? I suppose this is the whole purpose of the book traces project, to seek out the books of value. I found two books, both with different inscriptions on the cover page. Unfortunately I do not have any images of these inscriptions, but both were written in what seemed to be an old-fashioned ink pen. I took these books out of a sea of many others, just because the inscription was there deemed the book more valuable than the others. This experience emphasized the importance and prevalence of historical archiving and data collection. What use is an abundance of information if no one is there to use it? The book traces event pointed out what can be done to remedy these situations as well as gave me an insightful look into past literature.

I would have like to hear what the final findings of this project were, but I could have stayed later to hear this. I thought the event coordinators could have helped participants understand their previous findings and give them a little more insight into what they had specifically found. After I submitted the books I was unsure what was going to become of the conclusion of the project. For future generation readers the books that were saved could be put on an online catalogue where the call number would be provided and the actual book would be available. I realize that is the concept of any library, but if a special section was dedicated to the books specifically drawn from the Book Traces event that could be helpful.

On a side note I thought the Columbia University campus was gorgeous, as evidenced by this photo. #newmedia