More than 60 world renowned miniature artisans worked on the house, and created furnishings, rooms (including 9 bedrooms), paintings, porcelain and other items that were exact replicas of that period.

“I decided I should have a library in my miniature house and that I would put real books in my library; miniature books,” she said.

Pistner then went on a hunt for any ancient miniature books she could find, and joined the Miniature Books Society (MBS).

“In 1997, I went to my first Miniature Books Society meeting which they call the Conclave,” Pistner said.

According to the organization’s history, MBS is an international non-profit organization chartered in 1983 by the State of Ohio. Its purposes are to maintain an interest in all aspects of miniature books, to provide an environment where ideas are exchanged amongst people with an interest in miniature books, and to serve as a clearinghouse for those books.

The conclave takes place annually where members of the society get to meet each other. Dealers, collectors, manufacturers and publishers all come together to interact with other people who share the same interest.

Competitions and exhibits also take place at the Conclave which next year is scheduled for September 3-6, 2010, in Lexington, Ky.

Pistner says that some of the society’s members come from outside the U.S. MBS has therefore occasionally held its annual meeting in foreign countries such as Germany, Scotland, Canada and England.

Pistner says her collection encompasses 4,000 miniature books that she has accumulated in almost 30 years.

“I acquired my very first miniature book in the early 1980’s,” she said. “But I can’t say that I truly started collecting books with seriousness until 1997.”

“I have paid in the 5 figures for a miniature book,” Pistner said.

She says she holds artifacts ranging from ancient Egyptian cuneiform tablets dating from 2,000 B.C., to early printed miniature books.

Pistner’s dollhouse and some of her miniature books were even featured in the “Masters of Miniature” exhibition at the Naples Museum of Art.

She says she has acquired these valuables mostly through dealers and auctions.

A world renowned company located in Peru which has been part of the Miami scene recently, is one of some rare distributors of miniature books.

The company is called “Los Libros Mas Pequeños Del Mundo” (The Smallest Books of the World.)

This company is well known for its religious miniature books. “Mensajes Para Toda la Vida” (Messages for Life) is one of them. It contains sayings that were taken directly from the bible and is a best seller for adults, according to Ludy Briceño, sales manager for Los Libros Mas Pequenos Del Mundo.

Other subjects this company prints include Greek fairy tales for kids, life lessons geared towards men and women specifically, books on love, and collections of poems from around the world.

Although these books are more recent and contemporary than what can be found in Pistner’s collection, Los Libros Mas Pequeños Del Mundo has made a name for itself in the past decade or so.

Luis Enrique Pereyra Espinoza, sales chief for Los Libros Más Pequeños Del Mundo, says he has been attending the Miami book fair for 12 consecutive years.

Ludy Briceño, sales manager for Los Libros Mas Pequenos Del Mundo says this year they sold 4,000 books out of three stands at the fair.

“We participate in book fairs around the world to sell our books,” Espinoza said. “I have traveled to Spain, Italy, the United States and South America.”

Besides book fairs, the company’s books can be purchased in bookstores in Peru, South America and even Miami; they can also be ordered online in English, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian.

“Our books are 100 percent hand-made,” Briceño said.

Espinoza added that they are all made in Peru by a team of 45 men and women who work full time to print the texts with a press machine, and put the books together.

The books measure anywhere from 1 x 1.5 x 1cm to 11.5 x 18 x 1cm; their prices ranging from two dollars for the smallest books, to eight dollars for the biggest ones.

Los Libros Mas Pequenos Del Mundo has been around since 1970. The company was created by Alberto Briceño Polo. Polo was born in Cajamarca, Perú on June 29, 1950.

According to the company’s history, Polo always had an affinity for reading literary works. After college, he began reading hundreds of novels which inspired him to create and develop the concept for his miniature books company.

He wanted to bring cultures of the world together. One of the greatest ways he succeeded in doing so was in his revision of the bible, and other holy scriptures of the world from which he took some of the most beautiful messages to put together in one book.

The company started with only one book, and now has 300 published titles.

Pistner says she’s never heard of them, but she has books that are much smaller than those Los Libros Mas Pequeños Del Mundo claim to be the smallest of the world.

“I’ve seen books that are smaller than a fingernail,”Pistner said.

Some highlights of Pistner’s collection can be found at http://gallery.mac.com/pistnerhouse#100015.

image courtesy of University Health Services

There have been complaints in the past about the deteriorating conditions of the FIU North Campus dorms. Complaints ranged from broken plumbing and bad air-conditioning to leaking roofs, and doors in need of repainting according to an article published on the fiusm.com website on March 28, 2009.

“Buildings are put on a preventive maintenance program, so complaints are an aspect that we want to be responsive to, but ultimately, a life cycle of a building will require investments on a periodic basis,” Executive Director of Student Affairs and Auxiliary Services James Wassenaar says. “Typically, for residence halls of this nature, we would paint that residence hall within a five year period.”

Although the Bay Vista’s backyard has some noticeable defects that need to be attended to, such as two broken picnic tables, one which has been deemed unusable and wrapped with yellow barrier tape that says “caution”; and one still standing, but barely, it seems this semester has seen some improvements. Students claim new appliances were put in, the air conditioning was changed, and the building was painted inside and out.

Broken down table in Bay Vista Backyard

Nardo Dorsin is a 19 year-old sophomore who has been living in the Bay Vista Housing for a year, and he’s finally seeing some changes in the dorms. “I used to get bad allergies because the AC filter needed to be changed,” he says.

Wassenaar says that the Housing and Residential Life’s only source of income comes from student rental fees which are used for the operation of the facilities, debt services, and three

Bench available for use in Bay Vista Backyard

percent of the annual revenue is put into a reserve. That reserve, which has been accumulating since the construction of BVH in the early 1980s, is what was used for the painting of the dorms which cost about $450,000, according to Wassenaar.

“The overall housing auxiliary is a $22 million operation,” Wassenaar says. He says that money has to be used for over a million square feet of residential space representing over 25 percent of the campus’s physical plan.

20 year-old Meghan Castallano is a junior majoring in Hospitality. “I have the dorm that is my own room bathroom and kitchen. I have never had a dorm like this and compared to the dorms at my old school this place is a dream.”

Castallano previously attended the Culinary Institute of America in New York.

She has just a few complaints about her dorm room. “The tiles in the bathroom could have been cleaned a little better and the front to my air conditioner continuously falls off even after they fixed it,” Castallano says. “But I am pretty happy in all with the dorm I am living in.”

Wassenaar says that future renovations are in the talks such as landscape improvements, fixing the grass, and attempting to bring some foliage into the courtyard.

Daniel Jordan has been living in the dorms since 2007. He recently became a Resident Assistant (RA) in the summer of ’09. According to the 2009-2010 FIU Student Handbook, RAs are advisers trained to work with students in establishing a residential community on a given floor or wing of the dorms. They are to help students transition to FIU and can assist with maintenance problems, roommate conflicts and other issues of concern.

Jordan says that to be an RA, you have to have a 2.5 GPA or higher, go through three RA classes, shadow somebody at the [dorms’ front] desk and shadow an RA.

He says that so far, he hasn’t had any problems with the dorms, although “they could take the time setting up rooms better,” he says. In his room, the refrigerator opens up the wrong way and is obstructed by a wall making it impossible for him to completely open the door. “I can’t get to some of the bottom drawers,” he says.

Jordan says that in Spring 2008, the laundry room at the dorms was renovated, but they only have half the number of washers and dryers they used to have. “That’s kind of a bummer,” he says.

In his two years at the dorms, Jordan has lived in different rooms. He says he once had a room where the desk was “wobbly.” “I tried to get it changed and they said ‘Well, you have a table, that’s fine.’ I felt like well…I paid all this money, I want a good desk,” Jordan says.

Barbeque in Bay Vista backyard

On February 3^rd, 2009, at 3:30pm, then FIU President, Modesto Maidique addressed the student body about his plans and outlook on the future of the university and the changes that he has mandated within his administration. He spoke of the university’s budget cuts, faculty cuts, and curriculum changes. He elaborated on how those cuts and changes would affect the university’s future and he spoke of some of the ways in which he intended to lead FIU toward prosperity through these hard economic times.

After his speech, there was an open microphone session for the student body and faculty to respond to Maidique’s speech and voice any concerns they had about the state of the school. Students seemed mostly concerned with the current situation at Biscayne Bay Campus when responding to Maidique. Particularly, at least four students asked about the deteriorating condition of the dorms on this particular campus. Some said that the plumbing was broken, air-conditioning was bad, and the roof was leaking. One student spoke with anger in his voice and said that the $700.00 that he is paying a month to live in the dorms is not worth it when apartments are cheaper down the street. There was not enough time for students and faculty to address all of their issues and concerns, yet I think that Maidique got the point; many were not happy.

This blog will take a closer look at the dorms this semester, and point out whether some changes have been made or not. It will touch on the intricate details that lead to the deterioration of the dorms, and most importantly, the slowness of its refurbishment.