Sunbonnet Soliloquy

By Jewell Ellen Smith

Let February be “Nose Month”

So many heart-shaped valentines are spread around in February it almost makes you think that February is “Heart Month.” Maybe it is, or could be.

But February is also a good “nose” time.

Just to be different, let’s consider what to do with noses -- not hearts -- during February!

You will have to use your nose for breathing, as usual. You will have to blow it occasionally, a million times if you happen to catch cold. You will have to wash it, because it’s right there in the middle of your face and there’s no way to avoid it when you apply soap and water to the remainder of your fair countenance!

Of course you must protect your nose from wind and frost. Rain won’t hurt it.

What else?

Isn’t February a good time to put your nose in a book?

Only 55 percent of Americans read books. At least six percent of all those over 16 never read anything! Another 39 percent read only newspapers or magazines.

In January it was this reader-writer’s honor to be a delegate to the Alabama Governor’s Conference on Library and Information Services, held in Montgomery. There, some 350 citizen and library-related delegates and observers from all sections of the state heard quoted book and library figures that were surprising.

For example, in the public libraries of Alabama there are only 1.2 books per person. Tax monies allocated to Alabama libraries amount to only 40 cents per capita. In the U.S. as a whole, there are some 10 million persons who have no local library services.

This three-day conference made me think I should mention to you how very fortunate HEDGEHOPPER readers and other Fort Rucker residents are.

We have, on Post, fine library facilities -- the Aviation Center Library and the Aviation Training Library. The chief librarians here, Ms. L. S. Kuntz at the Center Library and Ms. M. L. Durkin at the Training Library, were kind enough to put together, for use in this column, some statistics on what the libraries offer. These numbers may surprise you.

The Center Library figures show: total volumes, 39,368; subscriptions, 220; tapes, 624; films, 213; records, 925; cassettes, 393; microfilm, 1,400. And, as the Library’s information pamphlet points out, “the Center Library is your library...It’s free!”

The Aviation Training Library has a primary mission “to provide military and technical aviation information and reference service to the staff, faculty, and students of the Aviation Center, for the development of Center instruction, and for the educational and professional development of Army Aviation personnel. Serves as a repository for publications related to history of Army Aviation, and to the evolution of American military aviation ...”

The Training Library has holdings that total some 290,366 items! This includes more than 31 thousand books. And, there are all manner of documents (3,272 in the Historical Archives, alone), DA and other publications, vertical file pamphlets and clippings totaling more than 3,000 college catalogues, maps, periodicals (364 subscriptions), microfilm (4,824), research materials, and much more.

To list in detail all the holdings in Fort Rucker’s libraries would be to use up all the pages of this issue of HH. The point is, there is a vast amount of library materials right at our doorsteps.

So, take advantage of it! Try making February into “Nose-in-a-Book Month.” This, for your own pleasure and information.

Besides, think of this: as long as your nose is in a book, there’s no danger of poking it into somebody else’s business!

Published February 1979. Click your browser’s “Back” button to return.