Christmas Creativity
Library trees help celebrate yuletide in literary style
The book Christmas tree is on display Monday at the Palmer Memorial Library at Texarkana College. The tree was assembled by Robert Guillory, the coordinator for the testing center at the college, and members of the student support services department.
Many book lovers have gazed upon elusive photos on their Facebook feed and on friends’ Pinterest boards, wondering at the physics and possibilities of actually stacking favorite tomes in circles to celebrate the Christmas season.
At Texarkana College, Library and Student Services Director Tonja Mackey has turned the fabled book tree into a reality since 2011. She said she wasn’t sure where she got the idea, but it was likely Pinterest was involved.
It began when the Palmer
“This year, it’s taller than it’s ever been. It goes up to the second floor.”—Tonja Mackey, library and student services director at Texarkana College
Memorial Library was still sharing space with Texas A&M University-Texarkana, which has now moved to its own campus. TC's portion was very small, Mackey said, and the tree made their side truly festive. But decking the library's floors with a book tree came with a bit of trepidation.
“I was afraid to build it. We didn't have any strong guys in the library,” she said. “About 6 p.m. one day, I just started building it. I was scared to build it while people were here in case it fell.”
Never one to leave things incomplete, Mackey returned the next morning at 4 a.m to finish the tree.
“It went together really easy,” she said. Student Support Services moved into the library in 2013 after A&M-Texarkana moved out, and now they are the muscle of the project, although Mackey still supervises how it's done. “I make sure nobody gets too risky,” she said.
To build the tree, they flip a big, round table upside down. Then a chalk line is drawn on the bottom of the table as a guide, and books are placed around the edge.
“We level off each book about an inch in,” she said. “If you go too deep, the books will start caving in. It's a very gradual inset of books.”
Heavier books, including red and green bound editions of “Life” and “The Saturday Evening Post” are used for the base, with smaller titles topping the tree. Some of these smaller titles are pulled from the current collection and used for their size and shade. Others have been removed from the collection and are used each year specifically for the book tree.
“We picked them for various color throughout the tree,” she said, noting that many are deep red and deep green. “Fortunately when we had congressional records bound, those were the colors we used.”
What took many hours in the beginning now takes about four, Mackey added, stating that this year's tree was a little different than those in years past.
“This year, it's taller than it's ever been,” she said. “It goes up to the second floor.”
TC's book tree will remain in the library until school starts back in January, Mackey said. One year, they kept it up through Valentine's Day, although plans are still unclear for the fate of the 2016 edition.
“We'll start taking it down as soon as we get back in January,” she said. “That's unless we come up with something else to to do with it. You never know, it could happen.”
The Palmer Memorial Library, located at 1024 Tucker Street, is open from 7:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday. It is closed Saturday and is open from 2 pm. to 9 p.m. Sunday.