Growing Pains: 1960s Additions

Collections, research services, college enrollment, and library staff continued to grow after WWII. Space and funding issues persisted, and the hope and need for an expansion became more imminent.

By the 1950s, the Library maintained multiple reading rooms in other buildings across campus, in part to address the space concerns. These included the Physical Sciences Reading Room in the Office and Laboratory Building, the Engineering Reading Room in Marston Hall, the Architectural Reading Room in Engineering Annex, the Economics and Sociology Reading Room in Agricultural Annex, and the Herd Book Room in Curtiss Hall. As Library Director, Robert Orr urged against the continued expansion of reading rooms outside of the library building, citing issues with library development, funds, and ease of research across subjects.

In addition to book storage space, simply having enough room for students and faculty to work in the Library was an issue. Though the seating capacity increased from 666 to 797 in 1946, library users routinely complained of being overly crowded. Furthermore, the 1925 building was showing serious signs of wear, such as roof leaks.

To combat these issues and support continued growth, Orr made multiple requests to President Charles Friley and others to prioritize a library addition. He sought estimates from various sources, and in 1956 the library compiled a program making the case for an expansion. Orr’s calls were built upon many years of others urging for more space; as noted in “ISU Library – First 110 Years” in the May 24, 1968 issue of The Library at Iowa State, “Librarians and architects worked on various plans for more than thirty years before the Iowa General Assembly appropriated funds in 1959 for a First Addition to the Library Building.”

Expansion of the Library wouldn’t take place until 1960, which saw open stacks and reader space, new stairs, classrooms, an elevator, and restrooms added to the west side of the building and a new rotunda entrance on the south side.

This addition cost $890,000, which included renovations to the existing 1925 building. The design of the addition was intended to blend the historic 1925 building with modern ideas about library layout and services. However, the opening of this new section in the fall of 1961 did little to alleviate the space shortages the library had.

Orr continued to express concerns about library space needs, particularly in the face of expected enrollment increases in the coming years as the Baby Boomer generation began college. By 1965, another addition was in the works. Groundbreaking occurred in July 1967, and the second addition, located to the west and north of the first addition, was completed in September 1969. This addition, however, only provided a short reprieve of space needs.

During this era, the library began intentionally collecting materials to document institutional history. Dorothy Kehlenbeck was hired in 1953 to collect and organize materials as Iowa State College approached its 100th anniversary, and she continued on as the Curator of the College Historical Collection and then as University Archivist. In addition to collecting many papers, photographs, and artifacts, Kehlenbeck also conducted oral history interviews with numerous figures important to the College’s history. Included are interviews with Charles Harvey Brown and Robert Orr; these interviews both provide biographical information about the two library directors and also illuminate challenges and achievements as the library evolved.

In 1967, Warren Kuhn was hired as the Director of the Library (1967-1971), and he was promoted to the position of Dean of Library Sciences in 1971. Under his leadership, the library would usher more change into the 1970s and 1980s.