Memories of the Thompson Memorial Library
From LibraryWiki
Contents |
Share your memories of the Thompson Memorial Library
Add your story to those being collected here. All you need is to sign up for an account with the OSUL wiki -- Request an Account. Then come back to this page, select edit, and add your story.
People from the Libraries' Past
The First Addition to the Original Building
From an interview with Dr. Lewis C. Branscomb, director of OSU Libraries from 1952-1971, by Dr. Paul Underwood on June 5, 1985.
UNDERWOOD: Again at the time you came, was the original part of the library as it now stands there, I mean without the added things at the back end of the building.
BRANSCOMB: Yes. It was the original building, but without the tower. That was in process. They had begun working on the first addition. This included the tower part and the 12 new stack decks. Before that, the Main Library, which was first occupied in 1913 had much less room, and had the old glass floors in the stacks, which were becoming very much out of date. Nobody did that anymore. We’ve since gotten rid of that. That addition was completed in 1951, 3 years after I got there. They were just in the process of finishing the plans when I came, so I had very little to say about that. One interesting thing about that, I did have a little bit to say about, for instance, the browsing room. I remember Howard Dwight Smith, who was the university architect, and a pretty tough nut to crack, didn’t see the point of a browsing room. He didn’t know how useful it could be to students and faculty as a relaxing place to sit and read. I finally talked him into it, and it turned out to be one of the most useful things we had in the addition. Students just came in and sat in the easy chair and relaxed. I think we even allowed them to smoke as I recall. We had coffee hours and brought in people like Archibald MacLeish, Jerry Lawrence and others who would speak at a coffee hour. It worked extremely well for 15 years until the second addition came along.
Note from Raimund Goerler, University Archivist: Howard Dwight Smith was also the architect who designed Ohio Stadium. Branscomb came to OSUL in 1948 and began as director in 1952. In other words, the stack tower was the culmination of the career of Branscomb's boss, Earl Manchester, even as the Library itself was partly the embodiment of the vision of Olive Branch Jones, our first librarian who served on the committee to select the architects and was involved in the planning and design.
Current Faculty and Staff
I Gotcha
I’d guess we all have stories that we think would be the basis for a hilarious book, although I suspect that some of our stories are pretty similar. How many times have we been asked, “Remember that book you helped me find? It was red?” or “What journal did I copy this article from?” or “I took a Sociology course last quarter. What was that one book we used?” I had one student who asked, “Where’s this?” as he tossed a piece of paper across the desk on which was written “RM300.” After escorting him to the books on pharmacology, he looked at me as if I were an idiot and said, “I’m looking for room 300.” Another student was looking for a set of particularly heavily used abstracts. Across the large expanse that was the Engineering Library, was an index table situated beneath an exit sign I used as a landmark. When I said to the student, “do you see that exit sign?” he replied, “I gotcha” and proceeded to walk out of the library.
Nancy Helmick
Library Catalog System Manger
The Squirrel Search
OK, so I arrive at work one Wednesday morning and spend a few minutes talking to Tony Maniaci before going to my office. As I'm standing there, someone comes up to tell me that at 4:45 yesterday they were looking for me because there had been a report that there was a squirrel in my office and the rodent control people -- who brought along their cage, net, peanut butter and peanuts, needed access.
"Between when I left at 4pm and 4:45, a squirrel gets into my office?" I ask? "How does a squirrel get into an office that has restricted access where the windows are painted shut? And who reported that there was a squirrel in there? The squirrel?"
Naturally, I'm not going in to investigate, although Tony offers to scout my office for me and he doesn't find any overturned trash cans, or bent up miniblinds, or poop on the carpet. Still, I'm a little reluctant to go in until I get a more official "all clear." As I'm cooling my heels in the lobby, the guys with the cage and the jar of peanut butter come through. It's not too hard to tell that I'm the one they are looking for (what with the cage and net and stuff). I ask how they know there's a squirrel in there and they tell me that they don't know how anyone knows, they just got a call to come over and get it (that's OSU bureaucracy for you). Then they mention that the report was made at noon -- and I'm thinkin' "wouldn't I have noticed?" Then they say that the report was made by Neil somebody to Denise somebody at Physical Facilities.
So we call Denise who says that the call was made at noon on MONDAY, not Tuesday, but that it was for room 105 (my office is 105A), by the staff in the computer lab. I send the guys with the cage and the peanut butter to the kid sitting at the desk in the computer lab and he says -- "oh, yeah, we haven't seen the squirrel for a couple of days."
Nancy Helmick
Library Catalog System Manager
