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The Wilbur Cross Library Difficult Times Informal Observations on Its Place in Uconn History

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The Wilbur Cross Library Difficult Times Informal Observations on Its Place in Uconn History YOUR INFORMATION CONNECTION WWW.LIB.UCONN.EDU APRIL/MAY 2003 Succeeding In The Wilbur Cross Library Difficult TImes Informal Observations on Its Place in UConn History Brinley Franklin Norman D. Stevens, Emeritus Director of University Libraries Director of University Libraries ies, both of whom had joined the university he renovated Wilbur Cross building, shortly before completion of the addition. A here are times when it is which now houses a range of student collection of 400,000 volumes in 1962 had grown relatively easy to be services, was rededicated on Novem- successful. Difficult times T to a million volumes by 1971. That growth led to T ber 20, 2002. As part of the program, I was the need for a new library building, which opened are more challenging, and asked to speak about the building’s role as the in 1978 and was dedicated as the Homer Babbidge success is harder to achieve. The University Library. Since the University of 2002 UConn women’s basketball Library in 1984. Connecticut Advance and the rededication (Adapted from the rededication program) team had four first-round WNBA program included short pieces on the history picks in its starting line-up. The of the building, I offered informal observa- undefeated team won the national championship, 1939-1945 Upon its completion in 1939, the WCL tions based on my experiences after I joined was an impressive structure that dominated the but it was almost expected. Only one player the staff in 1968 and also on my understand- campus landscape. Its distinctive cupola and gold returned to the starting line-up in 2003, the ing of the earlier history of the library, starting point guard was injured much of the dome made it the signature campus building of its gleaned largely from conversations with day, a position it held for many years. Even today, season, and most of the players were unproven Roberta K. Smith, who began working in the the cupola remains, perhaps, the primary icon of freshmen and sophomores. Nevertheless, the Wilbur Cross Library in 1946. For this article, women Huskies again won the national champion- UConn, and the view of the building from Storrs I have expanded slightly upon those remarks Road still provides a suggestion of its early ship, losing only one game all season. Some to provide a general impression of the place of stateliness. From the library’s front portico, the observers claim it was Coach Auriemma’s finest the Wilbur Cross Library in the history of view of the landscape to the east was extraordi- coaching job. UConn. ! There are no national championships in nary, as there were no buildings to block the vista academic librarianship. In 2003, the UConn towards Horse Barn Hill, and many large trees A Brief History of the Wilbur Cross Building Libraries faced a year in which the operating had fallen in the hurricane of 1938. The Wilbur Cross Library (WCL), the first budget was cut, the acquisitions budget was flat, Planning and construction of the WCL came university structure built specifically to house the and a smaller complement of staff was called upon at the end of an era in the history of library university’s library collections, served as the to do more with (even) less. That the Libraries architecture that emphasized monumental fea- University of Connecticut’s main library from were able to achieve as much as we did this year is tures. The cupola and dome in the center of the 1939 until 1978. Construction of the 110,000 sq. a testament to the dedication and hard work of building, the imposing stairway and main en- ft. building began in 1938 and was completed, at a our staff and to the unwavering support from our trance, and the massive reading rooms at either cost of $424,472, in May 1939. Funding for the donors. Some of the accomplishments of which we side of the building were typical of the time. building was part of a then unprecedented bond are most proud include: Equally typical was the relegation of collections to issue of nearly $3 million approved by the Con- • The Libraries were accepted into the Boston a multi-tier core stack designed to maximize necticut General Assembly for the construction of Library Consortium, the premier research storage capacity with little consideration for ease new buildings. Chief among the building’s library group in New England. The library of use. Sturdy wooden furniture, especially long features were its seven-level core stack area with a immediately began to participate in BLC reading tables, conveyed a sense of the serious capacity for seven tons of volumes and its two initiatives, including priority document deliv- purpose of the space. The building is evocative of monumental reading rooms with 30-foot high ery/interlibrary loan service and 24/7 reference many academic library buildings constructed in ceilings. The WCL was one of the first campus service. the 1920s and 1930s. buildings to be air-conditioned. • We implemented a new collection management/ Library services emphasized strong collections Fittingly, the Connecticut State College security system using smart computer chips, and large open reading rooms in which students became the University of Connecticut in the same becoming the largest North American library to could study and use the collections. The staff was month the library was completed, and in April utilize this technology and receiving interna- relatively small and, other than then Director Paul 1942, the Board of Trustees named the building tional attention. Users enjoy unmediated Alcorn, consisted entirely of women, most of after Wilbur Cross, a native of Mansfield and a collection security and improved self-checkout whom were either Storrs natives or spouses of four-term governor of male faculty members. Continued on page 5 Connecticut. The stacks were closed An addition to the to students, and except Inside UCONNLibraries WCL was completed for a sizeable reference and dedicated in collection in the north 1964. The addition reading room, books PAGE 2 Collections & Services: Our Fingers Did included space for were made available The Walking • Studying Old Maps in New 250,000 volumes and from a circulation Ways workspace for 60 staff service desk facing the PAGE 3 Ken Wilson (1923-2003) A Friend of members. Library entrance. Students the University Libraries • Searching the collections and were part of a close- Archives for Information on UConn’s Past • services grew rapidly knit academic commu- The Class of 1953 Video Theater under the leadership nity and were expected PAGE 5 Exhibit: Early American Decorative Arts of President Homer to abide by strict PAGE 6 Staff News D. Babbidge and John standards governing PAGE 8 Exhibits: The Cutting Edge • Finding P. McDonald, Director appearance and the Big Picture • Then and Now of University Librar- The Wilbur Cross Library’s monumental features were typical Continued on page 4 of library architecture of the first half of the 20th century. April/MayAvery Point 2003 Greater Hartford Stamford1 Storrs Torrington UCONNWaterburyLibraries Collections & Services Our Fingers Did The Walking Studying Old Maps in William Uricchio, Director, Trecker Library, Greater Hartford Campus New Ways Patrick McGlamery Map & Geographic Information Librarian s reported in the February/March 2003 else who had a telephone; and another from UConn Libraries (“SNET Company a farmer who complained that unnamed Records Donated to Archives & Special “Germans” were constantly coming to his abbidge Library owns relatively few A historic or rare printed maps of Connecti Collections”), the university recently completed house to call authorities to remove their dead cut. In lieu of such documents, and in receipt of the Southern New England Tele- horses from their farms. We also discovered B response to an emerging demand for information phone archival collection from SBC SNET. The internal memos from the company’s first article described the collection’s importance to days, including one requesting that operators about urban growth and the use of the state’s resources, the Map and Geographic Information researchers and noted its appraised value at not spend too much time chatting with Center, MAGIC, developed a strategy to create a $3.8 million dollars. customers, and another announcing that For the few of us who were charged with telephones would have numbers (a big digital collection to be accessed via the Internet. The result is a collection of over 300 map images bringing the initial parts of the collection to technical development at the time). tracing the cartographic history of Connecticut. Storrs from SNET’s vaults and offsite storage Once we were convinced we had cap- facilities, the appraised value seems almost tured the heart of the collection, we arranged These images are now accessible at http:// magic.lib.uconn.edu/cgi-bin/MAGIC_HistList.pl. fantastical. The newly organized and described for it to be sent to the Dodd Center. There, Beginning with maps of Connecticut before materials were, just five years ago, boxes upon archivist Cynthia McElroy, who had been key boxes of mostly dusty, sometimes crumbling, to the retrieval operations, began looking 1800, and working from Edmund Thompson’s Maps of Connecticut Before the Year 1800: A Descrip- volumes, random pieces of paper, ancient through the shrink-wrapped pallets of tive List and Maps of Connecticut for the Years of notebooks, and equipment parts. materials to make some sense of it all. Our work started in the basement vault of A predecessor to the January 28, 2003 Industrial Revolution, 1801-1860:
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