Two parallel walls in the Government Periodicals and Microfilm Section are covered with millwork derived from Pieter Breughel's depiction of the Tower of Babel (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna)....
A reading chair upholstered in bright canary yellow, situated amid the stacks on this subterranean level, recalls the history of mining south of San José. The fragile birds in cages or "mineshaft...
Watering holes in the desert are landmarks and campsites where stories have been exchanged for millennia. Many of our fairy tales have been inspired by the nomadic tribes who traversed these lands.
A tenfold light fixture above the children's story telling area alludes through its layout to a 19th century diagram of the Sephirotic Tree, a symbolic Arabic and Jewish mapping of the connections of...
As do all great libraries and all great mystery novels, the Circulating Books Section boasts a secret rotating bookcase. One side of the shelf is stocked with faux mystery books, the other side with...
A digital reader mounted on a wall adjacent to the checkout counter displays a real-time record of the total number of books checked out of the library system.
Location: above the Welcome Desk on the...
Beneath certain book stacks located throughout the library lie underground "vaults" holding books that have been banned, burned or otherwise intentionally set aside in history.
Location: to be...
Eighty-one leather chairs, each marked with one of the forty-three cattle brands of the original San Jose ranchos (as recorded in 1819), "range" freely on the 2nd floor.
Location: roaming freely on...
The Rosetta Stone was discovered in 1799. Its trilingual inscription, which made it possible to decipher hieroglyphics, is recognized as an image for the mutual intelligibility of diverse languages....
A corner fireplace (without fire) is built from bricks cast in the shape of books and marble selected for its smoky tendrils. This artwork, sited in a quiet reading area, speaks to the history of...
The ancient "art of memory" technique calls for the construction of an imaginary "palace" containing different rooms in which to store one's thoughts. As a suggestion to future builders of memory...
A vessel, formed in the shape of the redoubled profile of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., glows with a light, emanating colors of skin tones, representing the ethnic composition of the citizens of San...
As users walk between two rows of book stacks, they trigger recorded sounds of a page turning, followed at the end of the corridor by the sound of a book closing. Books contain "passages"; the...
Mirrors behind the books in the self-help section give us another perspective with which to reflect on ourselves, if we care or dare to.
Location: Third Floor, in the "self-help" section (Dewey call...
If "Skep" is an old word for a beehive made of straw, and a spectacle is something to behold, and being skeptical is advised while beholding this complicated world, then Skeptacle, is a giant...
Approximately the size of a French horn, a brass-plated, perforated sculptural representation of an inner ear replaces the grill of a public-address speaker in the ceiling of the Music Section. "The...
One of the founders of the Santa Clara Franciscan monastery, Father Magin Català is said to have foreseen the coming of the Anglo-Americans, the railroad, the discovery of gold and the 1906...
The gateway to the Library's Special Collections displays 88 golden carburetors. The construction of the gateway recalls the form of the Golden Gate Bridge, an emblem of the utopian hopes and dreams...
A diorama at ankle height is located within the exterior wall of the Steinbeck Collection. Steinbeck described "the process of rediscovery" as follows: "A young, inquisitive and original man might...
A carved volcanic stone table, alluding to Olmec sculpture, is placed among the standard Library tables in the vicinity of the archaeology collection.
Location: amidst study tables, north end of the...
Aesop's fox disparaged the grapes he was unable to reach, saying that they were sour. Sprouting from the ceiling in the business and economics reading room, this twisted and tortured wrought-iron...
The glass windows on the 7th Floor Bridge (located near the library's art and art history holdings) appear cracked. On closer scrutiny, the cracks match the breaks in Marcel Duchamp's Large Glass (...
Honoring a desire expressed by members of the English Department faculty to immortalize the Bard, the artists designed a mechanized light clock that projects a "constellation" based on Shakespeare’s...
The nineteenth-century idealist philosopher G.W.F. Hegel noted that "the owl of Minerva spreads its wings only with the falling of the dusk" - meaning that philosophy comes to understand a way of...
A group of standard office chairs, each sporting an additional pair of legs, nest and socialize near the natural science section that is home to books on entomology.
Location: southwest corner of the...
These five functional reading tables, located adjacent to the geology section, map the shape of the major continental plates. The granite of each table was quarried from the continent it recalls. The...
A hand hammered brass gong is designed after the San José Scale, a parasite that nearly destroyed the fruit orchards of the area in the 1880's. Chinese laborers blamed for this pestilence, lead one...
This artwork is composed of white leather-bound books inserted among the mathematics collection. Zeno of Elea, in the 6th century BC, argued that motion was impossible. His reasoning was that since...
Creating a continuing commentary on water usage and industrial erosion, one of the three sinks within each of the men’s and women’s bathrooms is sculpturally eroded, progressing from the Eighth to...
A magnificent Redwood tree which had been growing on the site prior to construction of the Library had to be cut down to accommodate the new building. The tree was hauled cross-country, milled...
A little "door" surrounded by an ornate façade is located at the base of the wall of the southernmost elevator. Easily noticed by children, it evokes an Alice in Wonderland potential of going down (...
The grill covers of the building's HVAC system have been masked with a sculptured surface using patterns derived from the breathing apparatus of living forms: in this case stomata , the respiration...
The transformation and personalization of mass-produced cars parallels the process of reading, promoting transformation, personal movement and creativity. East Side Story is a chopped down bicycle...
The path of Migration begins with the ascension of thousands of brilliantly colored cast metal Monarch butterflies along the brilliant blue wall of the South East stairwell. The butterflies escape...
