October 15, 2019 —The Tutwiler Library began long before we opened. In the months leading up to Kendal’s opening in July of 2000, the original members of the Library Committee met several times to establish protocols for the creation of a welcoming and useful library for Kendal at Lexington.
Early meetings of the Library Committee were held at the Col Alto Hampton Inn and at Tut and Gillie Tutwiler’s home on Lee Avenue. The Tutwilers, Bill Watt, Jeanne Kibbee, Joy Hayes, Ginny Beeton, Buck Buchanan, Louis Harlan, Bobbie Woolfenden, Yvette Wise, Jane Bicknell, and I were members of that committee. [Except for the last two, the members of this early committee have since died, leaving our library as an honored part of their legacy.]
The original library space was in a corner room where the marketing offices have been since the remodeling connected with Phase II. There was a corner fireplace and room for about 2500 books. (The current count in our expanded location is about 7000). We decided to limit the original book donations to about 250 books per incoming resident. This both helped and hindered the downsizing process for many of us, but it did guarantee that we would not be overrun with any one category of books. On July 31, 2003, this space was officially named the Tutwiler Library.
An early decision was to arrange our books by broad category rather than trying to actually catalog them. This arrangement has continued in the new and expanded Tutwiler Library which now spreads over the whole campus. “Books, books, everywhere” is a comment we often hear.
The concept of satellite shelves throughout the buildings was in existence from the very beginning. The original concept was to have these shelves strictly for book exchanges (take a book, return any book), but in more recent years these books have also been entered into our computer list.
As you enter the Tutwiler Library today, which you do every time you enter Anderson Hall, you will understand the “Books, Every- where” idea. Almost all our books are still donations. The only exceptions are the Memorial Books, each purchased by the Library Committee with the special interests of the dedicatee as the primary criterion for selection, and with a specially designed bookplate placed in each volume.
The Library Committee has been very active from the beginning. Each member is responsible for the care and feeding of a section of the library, making sure the books are in alphabetical order, and culling the section as necessary to allow room for new additions. This past year has seen the addition of a library guide and a clearly marked map of the various library sections.
— Sarah Giddings
Article originally published in the July 2015 KaLex Residents’ Newsletter