Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Renaming Saddleback College's "Butt" Library



     I noticed that, on Monday, the Lariat posted an editorial: What should the new Library be named?
     Gosh, I’m surprised that college officials are even contemplating changing the library’s name, what with Tom Fuentes still among the living! (Fuentes knew and loved cold war right-winger James B. Utt, after whom the library was originally named.)
     The Lariat clearly seems to think that a name-change opportunity exists.
     It notes a serious problem with the existing name: “Currently the name is the James B. Utt library which has been given the nickname the ‘Butt Library.’
     Ouch.
     The Lariat seems to embrace criteria for naming the library after a person: “A person should be memorialized with his or her name on a building only if they have contributed a lot to the campus, both in his or her terms of time and monetary patronage.”
     Both? Whatever.
     The Lariat has a sense of humor:
     One of the more popular ideas is to give the name a sense of learning and dedication.
     The Saddleback College Library of the Pursuit of Higher Dedication to the Continual Journey of Knowledge [SCLPHDCJK for short], is certainly not a practical name but the essence is to give it a cerebral quality that should be found at a college.
     Yes, a cerebral quality should indeed be found at a college.
     That’s funny, especially at Saddleback.
     Naturally, I wrote them my suggestions:
     …How about the “Bedtime for Bonzo” Library—in honor of Saint Ronald, who was on hand for the campus’s opening?
     “Bonzo” Library is more pithy. Also “Bedtime” Library (which gets a plus for fidelity to fact).
     Or just “Library.” That would be cool, pithy-wise.
     You can’t call it the “Gaucho” Library because, as you should know, the “Gaucho” moniker/mascot is controversial and, indeed, there’s some sort of committee working on its replacement.
     How about “Gabacho” Library? From “Gaucho” to “Gebacho” is cool, I think, in a meta kind of way.
     The original library’s design was changed when right-wing trustees got weirded out by the student anti-war protests occurring in Santa Barbara at the time. That’s why it had no windows: they wanted it to be a fortress against students!
     So how about “Bastion” Library? Or “Paranoid” Library? Or maybe the “Fear of Students” Library?
     For the sake of timeliness, I’d go with the “Soon-to-be-phased-out” Library or the “Increasingly Anachronistic” Library.
     Or you could go in the other direction. Call it “Books” Library. That would be fun, I think. There’s a nice right to that.
     One more: the “Non-ALA affiliated” Library. Or just the “Benighted” Library.
     Be sure to send the Lariat—and college decision-makers—your own thoughtful suggestions. It couldn’t possibly hurt.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good lord, that is one badly written article in the Lariat.

Anonymous said...

Go on line to check remarks made by the former Congressman (Mr. Utt): some are racist, some of his votes were against equal rights' amendments. The list is long. Is this what Saddleback and SOCCCD want to be known for?

Roy Bauer said...

If you click on the link I provided for Utt, you'll see that we highlighted Utt's curious remarks previously.

Anonymous said...

I IVC library is just called "Library" even though the original cmte wanted to formally name it "The Library" - wiser heads prevailed. Whew.

Anonymous said...

What about corporate sponsorship for renaming the IVC Library? For example: the IVC Personal Products Library. There could be one of those machines just inside the library entrance, where you leave your drink.

Anonymous said...

The Library. That is so fantastic.

Anonymous said...

Named after Mr. The!

Anonymous said...

Or Mr. Duh!

Anonymous said...

How about the Roquemore or Justice Library?

How about the Justmore Library?

How about the Department of Anal Justice?

Anonymous said...

How about the Book Repository?

Anonymous said...

We must rename the IVC library. A library has books in it.

Anonymous said...

The Butt Library at Saddlecrack!

Anonymous said...

When I was a kid growing up in Orange County and Utt was our Congressman, he was famous for saying that the Beatles were controlled directly from Moscow, and their music was designed to destroy the cerebral cortex of our children's brains, making them more susceptible to Communism and immorality... I guess no one ever asked him why the Russians didn't use the the Beatles for the same purpose in Russia! He voted against all civil rights and voting rights bills, and claimed that "a large contingent of barefooted Africans" were training down in Georgia as part of a United Nations exercise to take over the U.S. A real loony! Therefore, I vote for "Butt Library" until a better name comes up. Maybe name it after the Beatles? The "John, Paul, George and Ringo Library" has a much more scholarly ring to it than the present dedication...

Roy's obituary in LA Times and Register: "we were lucky to have you while we did"

  This ran in the Sunday December 24, 2023 edition of the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County Register : July 14, 1955 - November 20, 2...