If a fire were to occur in Hill Memorial Library, hundreds ofpriceless books and manuscripts in the stacks there would bedemolished. This is why the library has a fire alarm of a differentkind.
Hill Memorial Library is the site of the LSU Libraries SpecialCollections. According to the Special Collections brochure, thisincludes documents from the history and culture of this region,University archives and the Rare Book Collection, among others.
James Abbott, facilities manager for Special Collections, saidmost buildings on campus have a sprinkler system. However, HillMemorial Library had to install something a bit different.
Because of the rare collections in the library, the library usesa fire suppression system, Abbott said.
“The reason we have that is, take for example if we had a firein the building and we had sprinklers,” he said. “The books mightbe saved from the fire, but a second problem would be createdbecause the sprinklers would get all the books wet. This is just away of getting around that.”
Abbott said the suppression system is used instead of asprinkler system.
Metal tanks hold a chemical called halon, and when the smokedetectors go off, it signals the tanks to release the halonthroughout the area, he said.
Abbott said a chemical reaction causes the halon to extinguishthe fire.
“I hear some people have the understanding that halon sucks allthe oxygen out of the air, but that’s not true,” he said. “I don’tknow how that idea got started, but from people that do ourinspections, I’ve been told that is not true.”
Abbott said once the halon system is tripped, it would look asthough the tanks had spread white powder throughout the room.
“The whole building is not covered by the halon [system], onlyparts where the books are kept,” Abbott said.
Abbott said if a fire occurs in an area where books are located,alarms would go off in that area. This would signal the halonsystem, and alarms in the entire building would sound, he said.
Abbott said a licensed inspector frequently comes to inspect thesystem and the staff holds fire drills, but they never had to usethe halon system.
“It has to be inspected on a regular basis, so the system ischecked and it’s well known that halon will extinguish fires,” hesaid. “So they don’t have to do any live tests to make sure itworks. Fortunately we have not had a fire where we had to have itextinguished by the halon system.”
Abbott said there is no way to put a price tag on the collectionof items in the library, because certain items are irreplaceable.That is why they have the halon system — to prevent thepossibility the fire would demolish those materials.
But the fire alarm system is not the only precaution the librarytakes in order to preserve its rare collections.
All visitors who want to use the second floor Reading Room forresearch must check in downstairs and place all their belongings ina locker, and receive a pass before entering.
Joe Scott, a library associate, said if a visitor just wants tosee the exhibits in the library — such as the current E.A.McIlhenny exhibit or the Twilight of Napoleon’s Egyptian Campaignexhibit — they do not have to go through quite as muchsecurity.
Scott said sometimes, if a visitor needs personal belongings forresearch, they may bring them to the Reading Room. But they may besusceptible to search on their way out.
Hill Memorial is a closed-stack library, which means if avisitor wants to see a book, the librarian gets it from the stacksfor them, Scott said.
Pens are not allowed in the library, in case someoneaccidentally writes on something, he said. Patrons can use pencils,though.
A visitor also must check out when leaving the library.
Scott said the precautions Hill Memorial takes are not unique tothis library.
“In the Library of Congress, State Archives and places likethat, it’s the same procedure,” he said.