I
I
University
iibrary
largest
in state
l
By KATHY O’GRADY
Of the Emerald
“I will give $1,000 for the foundation of a
library for the University. I will personally
undertake to have the most suitable works
of reference selected by competent ex
perts." stated Henry Villard, president of
Northern Pacific Railroad, in a letter to
University regents on October 25, 1881.
The books selected arrived in the spring
of 1881 and the first library at the
University was established in a classroom
in the northeast corner of Deady Hall.
From that small classroom with its part
time librarian-full time teacher the
Library has grown to “about 1.2 million
books, making this the largest library in
the state,” said Carl Hintz, Universtiy
librarian.
“The Library has a lot more than books
and periodicals,” Hintz said,“in addition
to this we have material on microfilm, we
have slides, sound recordings, films and
maps. We also have 1.3 million
manuscripts, these are so called source
material, correspondence of authors,
papers of prominent persons and records
of organizations.”
These are housed in the General
Library, located south of PLC; the Ar
chitecture and Allied Arts Library in
Lawrence Hall; the Law Library in the
Law building; the Science Library below
ground level in front of the science com
plex; the EMU Browsing Room; the
Bureau of Governmental Research and
Services Library in Commonwealth Hall;
and the Map Library in the basement of
Condon Hall.
“These are all open to anyone connected
with the University,” Hintz said.
The job of Hintz and his staff of 48
librarians, 85 clerical personnel and part
time student help “is to acquire the
materials which will support the in
structional and research purposes of the
University and to organize these materials
for use and to help people in the use of
these materials in their search for in
formation,” said Hintz.
"Students come to the Library as in
dividuals, one to one, if they need help in
their search for information, this is how
they get it, one to one,” Hintz said.
“Students are given individual attention,
this contact between the, say, reference
librarian, and the student, we see this as a
highly teaching and learning association,”
he said. The Library is one of few places on
the ever-expanding University campus
where this one to one association can still
take place, according to Hintz.
Other university libraries are set up in
much the same way as the University
Library, according to Hintz, depending on
the size of the library, student population
and geographical location. Hintz is in
charge of the total Library system with the
Law Library having the most autonomy,
but responsibility for the Law library
budget is Hintz’s. The other Library
branches fall under the responsibility of
either the humanities division or the social
"Science division of the General Library.
The first Library building on campus
was built in 1908, Fenton Hall, the present
Library was built in 1937 with additions in
1950 and 1965. According to Hintz the
present Library has two drawbacks which
he hopes to see eliminated in the future.
Douglass l istening Room on the third floor
of the General Library building which is
used mostlv for classes and has a large
collection of records and tapes and the
Audio Visual Media Center located in the
Hint/
lack of carpet, which cuts noise, and the
lighting is of a type which causes a glare
that bothers students,
Hintz would also like to see “an
undergraduate library, sometime, with 75
to 100 thousand volumes and lots of com
fortable study space, carpet on the floor,
easy chairs and a coffee shop.” Many
undergraduates, from small towns
especially, are overwhelmed by the
present Library and would feel far more
comfortable using a smaller library
which would contain materials for all
undergraduate courses, he said.
The library has two special facilities, the
basement of the General Library building.
There are facilities for copying located
here and if someone wishes to listen to
their own recordings or tapes they may do
so here, according to Hintz.
The library is geared to the rest of the
University according to Hintz, “you don’t
build a library in a vacuum, it’s there for a
purpose in the context of the rest of the
University ”
“We wouldn't develop a collection in
agriculture or engineering, that’s Oregon
State’s baby,” he said, "we do have
collections in history and music and all of
the things here at the University.”
'We have all kinds of junk'
Special collections: a supplement to library
“All of the stuff in Special Collections
has been donated. We’re the biggest
beggars in the country.”
Martin Schmitt was speaking of the
Special Collections Department housed in
the General Library of the University
Library.
Special Collections is on the second floor
of the General Library and is a catch-all
for many different materials. “We have all
kinds of junk,” Schmitt, Special Collec
tions curator, said. “This department
takes all the things that should be in a
library, but are hard to handle, and takes
care of it
“The two largest collections are the
Oregon Collection and the manuscripts,”
Schmitt said The Oregon Collection
contains anything printed in Oregon or
about Oregonians or the state. The
manuscripts is a category that most
everything else in Special Collections fits
into
Schmitt and his staff of one assistant
collect and catalog the various materials
in the manuscripts Manuscripts include
“collections, diaries, and correspon
dences.”
"When Newberger died his wife gave us
his papers, and when Charlie Porter lost
his seat he gave us his papers,” Schmitt
said “We have papers on every Oregon
congressman back to the ‘20’s unless they
burnt them,” he said “They are glad to
give them After all, what would they do
with them?”
The Special Collections has more than
one and a quarter million pieces in the
manuscript division.
There are many other articles housed in
Special Collections such as Hallett Cole’s
collection relating to zeppelins. “These are
scraps of zeppelins shot down in World
War I,” Schmitt said.
There is also a large collection of
|K»sters. a collection of 100 thousand
photograph negatives, mostly of Oregon,
and a sheet music collection of about 100
thousand pieces which dates back to the
Civil War “Then, we have a collection of
paperbacks westerns, mysteries, science
fiction, and pulp magazines,” Schmitt
said
A large group of donators to Special
Collections is alumni. “We have the Ernest
Haycox working library,” Schmitt noted
as an example. “He graduated from the
University and used to be the top western
writer for Collier’s. When he died, his wife
gave us all of the books he used to do
research for his books. There is quite a
collection of western history represented.”
Very rarely will Special Collections buy
an addition to its collection of
paraphemalis, and Schmitt said it hasn't
happened lor at least three or loui years.
There is one hitch to Special Collec
tions it’s pretty much reserved for
graduate students Undergraduates may
use the book materials .thin ute walls 01
Special Collections but ma> take nothing
out and generally may not even see
manuscript materials “Undergraduates
just haven’t got the background to handle
these materials,” Schmitt said. Graduates
may not remove many of the manuscript
materials, either, but may use them in the
Special Collections department. “By and
large, these things cannot leave the
library," Schmitt said. “Usually there is
only one of it (non-book material) and if it
gets destroyed, there is no replacing it. A
lot of this stuff is unique, there is only one
copy.”
Even though you may not be able to take
many of the articles out of the library and
may not even see others, Special Collec
tions is a worthwhile place to visit just to
enter the nostalgic world of the past. The
Special Collections Department even
smells old, and if you like to read mystery
or westerns or science fiction persons can
go on up and sit at one of the tables to read
some of the old relics that you generally
don’t see on any library shelf