University Library Continues to Recover

Hello, I’m Shihomi Meguro, a member of the publication department.

At Kawauchi campus where we’ve just welcomed new students, you can see beautiful seasonal scenery of young leaves and blue sky.

 

It’s been 2 weeks since the lectures restarted. With an aim of striking balance between study and volunteer activities, HARU members seek “what I can do” for recovery.

This week again, HARU members have made efforts on recovery work at university library.

On May 18^th, about 10 members of HARU worked at the main building of university library.  On 1^st and 2^nd floor, there are about 900,000 books including classical documents and large books.

Thanks to the hard work of the library staff, most of the scattered books on the floor were returned to the bookshelves.  The library stack room is now available.  On that day, we strapped the books to the bookshelves to prepare for the aftershock.

       

A student of the faculty of economics who participated in this activity had gone back to his hometown, Yonezawa City in Yamagata Prefecture, to take refuge for a while until the lectures were restarted.  In Yonezawa city, he worked as a volunteer to support affected people who escaped from affected area around Fukushima nuclear power plants. He returned to Sendai when the lectures were started, but he said “I cannot feel ease when I study.  So, I joined a volunteer activity here at the university to help someone else.”

A student in his 1^st year of master course of law and politics told me his motivation of joining HARU.  He said, “I was stimulated by a friend of mine, Kyoto University student, who had worked as a volunteer in Miyagi Prefecture.”

A student in his 1^st year of doctor course of engineering has moved from Niigata to Sendai this spring in order to go to the doctor course.  He told us what he felt when he decided to join this activity.  He said, “When I watched the TV news covering the earthquake disaster, my legs moved at the next moment.”

 

It was impressive that each member told his feeling word by word, without stopping his hands to band books.

Library staff expressed thanks to HARU members for their activities to recover the library.

Staff was concerned most about the effects on the rare books.

On 2^nd floor of the main building, there is a rare books stack room.  In the room, rare documents of the world written several hundred years ago, and the first published edition of Soseki Natume and his letters written in his own handwriting were strictly kept.

 

In this room, strict systems against earthquake disaster had been provided, for example earthquake-proof book racks. However, some books in this room fell out of safety bars and scattered over the floor.  This told how severe the 3 minute-earthquake of 3.11 was.

 

The rare books will be repaired by staff and professionals, but the cost will be significant.

A staff member of university library dropped his shoulders in disappointment and said, “When I think of the affected books, I cannot stop feeling like crying.”

HARU members will continue to help recover the library even after the next week.