Cape Girardeau library's tape ball retired after 11 years of sticky service

The Cape Girardeau Public Library had a retirement of an 11-year-old tape ball Wednesday, Dec.18.

The ball was started in 2013 by a library employee who worked in the library’s adult services at the time and is now the library’s cataloger.

The ball is made of “new” tape removed from book spines and has approximately 20,000 to 30,000 pieces of tape from 11 years, library director Katie Earnhart estimated.

“Every time we add a new item to our collection, it gets a piece of tape, and on that tape, it says ‘new’. It’s a bright yellow sticker with black writing that says ‘new’ to signify to patrons and the staff that that particular item is new to the collection, and it belongs in the area for new materials, as opposed to the regular stacks. Once those new materials are no longer new, we peel that piece of tape off and it can’t be used anymore, and so we normally just go in the trash. But they have just started collecting it and creating it into this ball shape, and they’ve just been adding to it for over a decade,” Earnhart said.

The sticky tape ball is being retired because it has become cumbersome with its weight (16.3 pounds) and size (33 inches). It’s practically an exercise medicine ball, Earnhart said.

With the retirement of the tape ball in adult services, another ball was started in the children’s section a few years ago. Earnhart believes another ball will be in works in adult services