Did you spot it in the Meerminne yet? There, a beautiful book tower rose up to a whopping four metres high in February 2022. The story of how it came into being tells a tale of incredible teamwork across departments and faculties.
In 2006, the Faculty of Social Sciences moved to the Meerminne building in the Sint-Jacobstraat in Antwerp. In ten years’ time, the archive room had become overcrowded and cluttered. Chris Roes, responsible for archiving at the Faculty of Social Sciences, started the clean-up work in good spirits. She found thousands of publications: leftovers from conferences, copies of PhD theses, etc.
During a city trip to New York, she had an overnight stay at the Paper Factory Hotel, an old printing factory. Books had been transformed into a huge tower, from the basement all the way up to the first floor. This tower gave her the idea that the books from our archive deserved a special purpose. After discussions between our faculty, the Health and Safety Department and Technical Services, a decision was finally made: the book tower could be built!
Help from experts
The first important question was: how many books do we need for a tower at least four metres high? Chris checked with An Mariën of the Stadscampus Library, who sets up a Christmas tree of books with her colleagues every year. In An’s calculation we came to the conclusion that our own books would not get us there. The library provided us with some thick reference books and we sent out a call to our staff. Eventually we had quite a few books in our possession and our building project could begin.
Christof Witters from Technical Services became our partner in crime. With a team of five (Christof Witters, Chris Roes, Karen Boven, Brecht Mahieu and Geertrui Berghmans), we got started. A week should be enough to finish the tower, or so we thought. Starting from a fully padded conical tower – which turned out not to work – we ended up with a cylindrical tower.
Working precisely was important. Each layer of books had to be the same height and was glued to the previous layer. Book by book, layer by layer, slow but steady. At 50 centimetres a day, it took us two full weeks. Patience was our friend. Coffee and lunch breaks broke the rut. But thanks to discipline and perseverance, a sterling piece of teamwork now stands proud in our entrance hall. Some 5,000 books are tucked away in the tower.