Know Your Library was a series shorts, made to introduce Fresno County residents to their library and all the things that were available. It was broadcast on television during the late 1960's and early 1970's.
Fresno County Head Librarian Alice Reilly walks us through the Fresno County Public Library mural Bibliocosomos by Jackson and Ellamarie Woolley. Bibliocosmos is a jewel colored 144 square foot mural expresses the essence of a library as the well organized source of a wealth of complex, diverse, yet interrelated knowledge. The subject matter is arranged according to the Dewey Decimal System of book classification used by most libraries. The ten main categories from 000 to 900 as in the books, are symbolized in the mural by human figures, plants, animals, objects, signs and words.
These symbolic forms are arranged in a series of rectangular areas suggesting the logical structure and organization of human knowledge. The color sequences and flowing lines that move through these areas and cut across the geometric divisions indicate the close relationship and actual overlapping of the different fields of knowledge.
Bibliocosomos itself is 416 pieces of enameled copper in various sizes, each of which was a fired in a kiln at least six times.
The artists. the Woolleys, of San Diego, were chosen from ninety three artists. They have achieved acclaim for their work with enamel on copper, a medium for which they started working in 1947. There was at the time no instructions for working in this ancient art, so the Wooleys developed their own technique.
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Written on film can: "Know Your Library #17 - KMJ TV - Mural - 10mins - 370 feet"
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