Suggestion Book -- THIS IS YOUR LIFE!

The very first question in April 1977: “Why is it so crowded in here all the time?”
The most recent question on March 29, 2007 is #3814: “I was looking thru the programming books you guys had and I couldn’t find any about DirrectX 10 (the latest graphic library for windows OS). I was hoping you could order some”.
(DirectX 10 is a video-game programming language. We had to look it up, too. And we bought some books on DirectX 10 and directed our patron to our online collection of electronic books, Safari Books).
In the late 1970s and early 1980s:

• We reassured students that our security system would not erase the value on their Farecards for the then-brand-new Metro subway system.
• We were praised when new lighting in the stacks let students see the books on the shelves.
• We apologized for the noise created by office typewriters and a circulation system based on a punch card device that sounded like a machine gun every time a book was checked out.
• We replied that a request for a smoking area in the Library was “unlikely” (although smoking was permitted in offices in 1977).
• We agreed that we probably needed more than one of those new and very expensive videotape players.
• We replied to requests for an outside book drop with a long list of reasons why we didn’t think it would work for us (but soon after, we reversed ourselves, got a book drop and have never regretted it – we’ve even thought about having 2!).