Every day, students flock to MTSU’s James E. Walker Library for their study, research and printing needs. The library’s extensive assortment of resources grew on April 2 when library staff and volunteers celebrated the grand opening of an unconventional collection.
On the first floor of the library, near the reference desk, a line of eager students, faculty and staff trailed like a vine behind a repurposed card catalog. Within its drawers, the would-be gardeners found a thoughtfully curated selection of seeds. Friends and strangers chatted while they waited about what they hoped to grow.
“I love to grow stuff,” freshman audio production major Laura Bell said. “My grandma and my mom both taught me how to grow stuff growing up.”
Bell looks forward to starting a container garden with lettuce and other vegetables, and expanding it when she returns home for the summer, she said.
The idea to start a seed library germinated when librarian Ginelle Baskin told her colleague Wendy Jones about a poster presentation that caught her attention at an American Library Association convention.
“And [Baskin] was like, you know, maybe this would be something cool we could do,” Jones said. “And we got excited about it.”
The seed library’s offerings include herb and flower seeds as well as vegetables. They’re all tucked into a bit of library history.
“This was an old card catalog that we had somewhere in the library that was living in the loading dock for as long as I’ve been here,” Jones said. “And we were able to repurpose that.”
Though technology rendered physical card catalogs obsolete long ago, the sturdy cabinet and its tiny drawers are just the right size to file miniature seed packets. Jones met the challenge of dividing commercial seed packets into smaller portions of about five seeds, then designing information labels for the tiny envelopes. The seeds are organized by category and then alphabetically — exactly what one might expect from a library within a library.
Aspiring gardeners can choose up to five seed packets per week. After signing a log indicating what seeds they’re taking, they can scan a QR code leading to a lib guide with extensive information, or check out gardening books for inspiration. New books purchased for the seed library include a selection of titles geared toward small-space gardening.
The seed library almost didn’t get a chance to sprout. Unable to find a grant to fund their project, the librarians nearly abandoned the idea. Jones then received a campus-wide email about a sustainability grant and wondered if that might work.
“They loved it,” Jones said. “So, that’s where our money came from.”
Seed companies donated some of the seeds, while grant funds purchased others. The collection focuses on local varieties and plants that thrive in small containers. The possibilities include an entire rainbow of tomatoes alone — from Orange Jazz, to Pink Tiger to Cherokee Purple — and flowers spanning the alphabet from aster to zinnia.
“It’s not really meant to give you, like, a huge, big row-by-row garden,” Jones said. “It’s kind of to get you started with a smaller garden in smaller areas.”
Jones emphasized that the benefits of gardening go beyond food.
“It makes you feel great to have something successful and know that you can do this,” Jones said. “This is actually where this comes from, and this is actually fun, and it may awaken something else. It may make them go even further and have a bigger garden.”
The turnout at the grand opening pleased Baskin.
“I didn’t know what to expect, but I’m excited that so many people are here to take some seeds,” Baskin said. “Who knew people would want to grow things, right?”
To contact the Features editor, email features@mtsusidelines.com.
For more news, visit www.mtsusidelines.com, and follow us on Facebook at MTSU Sidelines and on X and Instagram at @mtsusidelines. Also, sign up for our weekly newsletter here.
