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The Valley Library
44°33′54″N 123°16′34″W / 44.56511°N 123.2760°W / 44.56511; -123.2760
Location	Corvallis, Oregon
Established	1963
Collection
Size	1.4+ million volumes, 14,000 serials, 500,000+ maps and government documents
Other information
Website	http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu/

The Valley Library is the primary library of Oregon State University and is located at the school's main campus in Corvallis in the U.S. state of Oregon. The library stores more than 1.4 million volumes, 14,000 serials, and more than 500,000 maps and government documents. The current building opened in 1963 as the Kerr Library and was expanded and renamed in 1999 as The Valley Library. The library is named for philanthropist F. Wayne Valley, who played football for Oregon State. The six-story building is in a contemporary neoclassical style with a red-brick exterior highlighted by white sections along the top and on part of the eastern side. The eastern side has a white-faced rotunda that includes a two-story atrium on the main floor.

History

Oregon Agricultural College opened a new library in 1918, the first time the library had its own building. Prior to 1918 the library had been housed on the second floor of the college's administration building, Benton Hall. When the new building was completed the school built a temporary trellis from neighboring Benton Hall's second floor to the new building's second floor in order to more easily transport the books to their new home. At first the new building also housed offices and classrooms, but within a decade the library expanded to occupy all of the structure.

The new library was remodeled on several occasions, with a new wing added in 1941. The 1918 building was located on the southeast corner of Campus Way and Waldo Place and after the 1941 addition had about 76,000 square feet (7,100 m) of space over three floors and a full basement. Designed in the neoclassical style, the exterior was made of bricks and contained decorative plaques constructed of concrete, with the gabled roof covered with tile. The original design had two-story reading rooms, which were converted to single-story rooms in the 1950s. A mural painted by J. Leo Fairbanks was added to the main reading room in 1929 as a gift from the school's class of 1925. The mural was titled Recorded Information and was the second mural in that room by Fairbanks, who was the longtime head of the school's art department.

Beginning in 1932, Mary J. L. McDonald made the then largest donation of books to the library when she donated volumes worth just over $10,000. She donated a total of over 1,000 items that included a complete works of Abraham Lincoln valued at $4,800. In 1936, the Works Progress Administration gave a decorative archway to the library to be installed over the south entrance to the building. The library received a bequest of about 5,500 volumes valued at about $15,000 in December 1947 from William H. Galvani's estate. This was again the largest donation to the library up to that time.

Construction on the new wing of the library started in 1940 and was designed by John V. Bennes. He also designed a matching wing for the other side as well, but that wing was never added. Previously known simply as The Library, the building and library were renamed in 1954 as the William Jasper Kerr Library. Kerr was Oregon State's longest serving president, holding the office from 1907 until 1932 when he became the first chancellor of what is now the Oregon University System.

In May 1960, the then Oregon State College was advanced $19,000 by the federal government to plan for a new $2,170,000 building. The new building was designed by architects Hamlin & Martin, and the cost rose to $2.4 million by the time the school accepted bids on the project in April 1962. Ground was broken on the project on May 1, 1962, with Shields Construction Company as the general contractor for the project. The new building would double the size of Oregon State's library.

Completed in 1963, the new library was built on Jefferson Street, its present location, and the name was transferred from the old building. At that time the building was four stories tall, but the school planned for an expansion by placing the slabs to be used for two new floors on the roof during the original construction. Oregon State began construction in the Fall of 1970 to add these new floors, with completion coming in the Fall of 1971. The old library building was remodeled and became Kidder Hall in 1964, named in honor of former librarian Ida Mae Kidder. Previously, Fairbanks Hall had had carried the moniker of Kidder Hall, starting in 1927.

In 1999, the building was re-named The Valley Library after an extensive expansion and renovation. Renovations took three years and cost $47 million to complete. That year the library was selected by The Library Journal as the Library of the Year.

Librarians at Valley Library began using text messaging in March 2010 to communicate with some library patrons, and earlier started to loan out Amazon's Kindle reader. In April, the school started allowing students to use the library 24-hours-a-day from Sunday through Thursday to test whether there was enough demand to allow 24-hour access on a permanent basis. The program was sponsored by the Associated Students of Oregon State University and paid for by university technology funds, and was due in part to the closure of some computer labs that had been 24-hour study areas.

Facilities

The Valley Library is a six-story, rectangular building with a rotunda on the east side. Designed in a contemporary, neoclassical style, the structure has a veneer of redbrick, with white-colored aluminum solar screening on the rotunda and the top floor added for decoration. The internal support structure is comprised of steel beams and concrete slabs.

Below ground-level on the north side, the first floor includes a cafe and study rooms. The main floor, which is the second floor, includes a two-story atrium as well as the circulation desk and main entrance. The third floor contains the OSU Archives, and along with the fourth floor houses the library's offices. A children's library and the special collections are located on the fifth floor, while the sixth floor only covers the southern two-thirds of the structure.

Directly north of the building is the Library Quad. The approximately 2.6-acre (1.1 ha) area was laid out about 1910 and is part of the Oregon State University Historic District listed on the National Register of Historic Places in June 2008. A bell tower, or campanile, was added on the eastern edge of the quad in 2001. Dedicated to alumnus H. Dean Papé, the 68-foot (21 m) tall tower has five bells and a clock.

Operations

One of three libraries for Oregon State University, The Valley Library serves as the main library, and is located on the main campus in Corvallis. The other two libraries are the Marilyn Potts Guin Library at the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport and the library at the Cascades Campus in Bend.

As of 2008, combined those libraries employed about 120 people (FTE), of which 23 were librarians. The three had a total of almost 1.6 million volumes in the collections, 16,992 serials, and 3,849 e-books. The Valley Library alone had contained 1.4 million volumes and 14,000 serials out of those totals. Valley also has over 500,000 government documents and maps, as it has served as a Federal Depository Library since 1907 and is a deposit library for the state government as well.

Collections

• History of Atomic Energy Collection
• McDonald Collection
• Ava Helen and Linus Pauling Papers
• The University Archives
• Northwest Art Collection - exhibits 120 artworks by contemporary artists in Northwest.

References

1. "The Valley Library". Retrieved 2007-12-08.
2. ^ "OSC Library Gains Funds". The Oregonian. Associated Press. May 11, 1960. p. 7.
3. ^ "Site Information: Kidder Hall". http://heritagedata.prd.state.or.us/historic/index.cfm?do=v.dsp_siteSummary&resultDisplay=647376. Retrieved 24 April 2010. {{cite web}}: External link in |work= (help)
4. ^ "Librarian Ends Long Service". The Oregonian. January 14, 1945. p. 11.
5. ^ "Mural Work Dedicated". The Oregonian. June 2, 1929. p. 18.
6. ^ "Oregon State Gets Rare Lincoln Set". The Oregonian. February 11, 1934. p. 38.
7. "Art Work Given College by WPA". The Oregonian. October 11, 1936. p. 8.
8. ^ "$15,000 Value Set on Gift". The Oregonian. December 14, 1947. p. 20.
9. "Bidding Called On O.S.C. Job". The Oregonian. July 3, 1940. p. 11.
10. Bennett, Tom. "William Jasper Kerr (1907-1932): "OSU's Great Builder" (Part one of a three-part series)". Oregon State University Alumni Association. Retrieved 24 April 2010. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
11. "Adequate Married Students' Housing Urged By Education Board". The Oregonian. March 14, 1962. p. 9.
12. ^ "OSU Library Ground Broken". The Oregonian. Associated Press. May 4, 1962. p. 20.
13. "OSU Library Bids Entered". The Oregonian. April 16, 1962. p. 16.
14. Edmonston, Jr., George P. “A Steady Hand” Back in the Day. Oregon Stater, Spring 2008. Vol. 93, No. 2. p. 40.
15. ^ "Building Construction". OSU Archives. Retrieved 2009-07-02.
16. "OSU Project Bids Listed". The Oregonian. September 17, 1964. p. 26.
17. ^ Khanna, Roma. “OSU’s new library lets students kick back, plug in”, The Oregonian, May 28, 1999.
18. "OSU librarian: ?4U". OregonLive. The Associated Press. March 25, 2010. Retrieved 25 March 2010.
19. ^ Hatch, Cheryl (April 19, 2010). "Valley Library pulls an all-nighter". Gazette-Times. Corvallis, OR. Retrieved 21 April 2010.
20. ^ "Site Information: Valley Library, The". Oregon Historic Sites Database. Oregon Parks and Recreation Department. Retrieved 24 April 2010.
21. "First Floor". Libraries. Oregon State University. Retrieved 24 April 2010.
22. "Second Floor". Libraries. Oregon State University. Retrieved 24 April 2010.
23. "Third Floor". Libraries. Oregon State University. Retrieved 24 April 2010.
24. "Fourth Floor". Libraries. Oregon State University. Retrieved 24 April 2010.
25. "Fifth Floor". Libraries. Oregon State University. Retrieved 24 April 2010.
26. "Sixth Floor". Libraries. Oregon State University. Retrieved 24 April 2010.
27. "Site Information: Library Quad". Oregon Historic Sites Database. Oregon Parks and Recreation Department. Retrieved 24 April 2010.
28. ^ Hood, Robert (October 2, 2001). "OSU dedicates new bell tower". The Daily Barometer. Oregon State University. Retrieved 24 April 2010. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
29. ^ "The Valley Library". Libraries. Oregon State University. Retrieved 24 April 2010.
30. "Guin Home". Libraries. Oregon State University. Retrieved 24 April 2010.
31. "Cascades". Libraries. Oregon State University. Retrieved 24 April 2010.
32. ^ "Compare Academic Libraries: Oregon State University". National Center for Education Statistics. U.S. Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences. 2009. Retrieved 24 April 2010.
33. "Government Information". Libraries. Oregon State University. Retrieved 24 April 2010.

External links

• The Valley Library Collection
• Photographs of the Valley Library on the Oregon State University Archives Flickr page

• University and college academic libraries in the United States
• Libraries in Oregon
• Oregon State University
• School buildings in Oregon
• Federal depository libraries