A Newsletter of the University of Washington Libraries

Library Directions: Volume 13, No. 1 a newsletter of the Autumn 2002 University of Washington Libraries Library Directions is produced three times a year by Letter from the Director UW Libraries staff. Inquiries concerning content should be sent to: Library Directions Don’t it always seem to go, University of Washington Libraries that you don’t know what you’ve got ‘till it’s gone? Box 352900 Seattle, WA 98195-2900 Joni Mitchell, “Big Yellow Taxi” (1970) (206) 543-1760 ([email protected]) Paul Constantine, Managing Editor The Suzzallo Library has been “gone” for the past two years. Its doors Susan Kemp, Editor, Photographer have been shuttered and the building surrounded by construction Diana Johnson, Mark Kelly, Stephanie Lamson, Mary Mathiason, Anita Smith, Mary Whiting, fences during a massive seismic renovation. On September 30, we Copy Editors reopened those doors and followed the Husky Marching Band up the Library Directions is available online at grand staircase. Imagine “Bow Down to Washington” reverberating www.lib.washington.edu/about/libdirections/current/. through the stacks of the library! Several sources are used for mailing labels. Please pass multiple copies on to others or return the labels of the unwanted copies to Library Directions. Addresses The Suzzallo Library fi rst opened in 1927 and this year we celebrate its 75th anniversary. containing UW campus box numbers were obtained from the HEPPS database and corrections should President Henry Suzzallo had a vision for a “cathedral of learning.” This vision would ultimately be sent to your departmental payroll coordinator. get him fi red for having inspirations that Governor Hartley considered foolish and extravagant. Luckily, architect Carl Gould shared Suzzallo’s aspirations and turned that vision into the In This Issue: magnifi cent Suzzallo Library. Letter from the Director.............this page Over the last two years, hundreds of people worked with enormous pride and aff ection to Suzzallo Library: the Soul of the University....................p. 1 restore the library. They were inspired by the vision of Suzzallo and the genius of Gould to Susan Kemp, Library Publications Coordina- tor, with Paula Walker and Carla Rickerson preserve the library for their children and grandchildren, many of whom are UW students Behind the Curtain ..............................p. 4 now or aspire to be. Suzzallo Library Reopens in Style......p. 5 Julie Keeler, Development Offi cer In this issue of Library Directions, you will read about the Herculean eff orts to restore the An Ancient Manuscript Suzzallo Library and other ways the University Libraries preserves the memory of generations on Early Buddhism...............................p. 6 and cultures that precede us, as well as the new knowledge being created today. You will learn Alan Grosenheider, Head, South Asia Section about Professors Richard Salomon and Collett Cox’s eff orts to decipher a 2,000 year old birch Scholarly Communication, 2002........p. 7 Joyce Ogburn, Associate Director of Resource bark Buddhist manuscript recently acquired by the Libraries. Joyce Ogburn reports on how and Collection Management Services librarians are working with faculty to infl uence new models of aff ordable and sustainable News and Events............................p. 8, 10 scholarly communication. You will be introduced to the concept of institutional repositories Awards & Recognition.........................p. 9 which hold promise for the reliable dissemination and preservation of UW’s digital output. In today’s world, we are saturated with impermanence and change. We build, revise, improve, tear down, and update. It is a tribute to the foresight of legislators, University leadership, On the Cover: and the hundreds of people who built, and rebuilt, the Suzzallo Library that its magnifi cence On the fi rst day that the West entrance of Suzzallo survives. Whether restoring the “cathedral of books,” conserving a 2000 year old treatise, or Library was once again open, Libraries staff posed for a group photograph to celebrate Suzzallo’s safeguarding today’s digital scholarship, the University Libraries is working to save what is of 75th anniversary and the end of a two-year renovation project. value to us and those who will follow. 1 Suzzallo Library: the Soul of the University he University of Washington was of the 1915 campus plan, also developed by founded in 1861, less than ten years At each end of the reading room, a paneled Gould and Bebb. Tafter the creation of the Washington alcove features a hand-painted world globe Territory and before the settler population hanging from the ceiling, each of which The original design of the library called of Seattle had exceeded 350 people. The bears the names of diff erent explorers. In for a carillon tower over 300 feet high University moved to its current campus the south apse, these explorers in the center of the triangular plan. The include Leif Ericson, Marco Polo, location in 1895, and after 1909 the fi rst wing, completed in 1926, faces the Columbus, Amerigo Vespucci, central plaza and includes the famous library moved to a building constructed for Magellan, Henry Hudson, Vasco da the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, but Gama and Juan Rodriguez and well-loved reading room. A 1927 considerably remodeled to accommodate a Cabrillo. Their north apse article in The Pacifi c Builder and collection of 40,000 books. The library soon counterparts are Ponce de Engineer proclaimed, “This outgrew its original quarters. Léon, Hernando Cortez, room has been pronounced Capt. John Smith, Sir by experts to be the Walter Raleigh, Fra Junípero Serra, Vasco most beautiful on the The University Library Rendered Almost Núñez de Balboa, continent and is ranked Useless by Lack of Room, Dark Quarters Francisco Pizarro, among the most beautiful and Ill Ventilation —by Miss MacDonnell John Cabot, Jacques in the world. It is “... The visitor starts down the stairs to comparable only to the nave of the basement, carefully feeling every step, a cathedral.” In 1935 a second expecting momentarily to plunge headlong Washington state. Suzzallo wing was constructed also into the dark. At the foot of the stairs he revitalized the University with his following the original plans. is turned about and directed down a still personal vision of a “University darker hallway towards two large doors, of a Thousand Years,” and the President Suzzallo found himself above which is a single electric light; a door construction of a new library building, caught in a tangle of political disputes is opened, and the visitor gives a great sigh the “soul of the University,” became and rivalries as a result of the sweeping of relief as he steps into the one, large, dimly lighted room and exclaims, “Oh, this is the one of his top priorities. library! ...” Ground was broken for the new library in April of 1923, based on designs by Carl Henry Suzzallo was appointed F. Gould, Sr. and Charles H. Bebb, President of the University Seattle architects of national Oak bookcases in the Suzzallo Reading stature. The building was Room are topped with a hand-carved frieze of Washington in 1915, representing native plants of Washington and reestablished strong an example of the Colle- state, including salal, Douglas fir, scrub connections between the giate Gothic style adopted oak, grape, dogwood, mountain ash, University, the people, by the University as part rhododendron, pear, trillium, salmon berry, and the businesses of wild rose, apple, marigold, cante-loupe, tulip and cherry. William E. Henry, Charles Wesley Smith, Librarian, 1906 - 1929 Head Librarian, 1929 - 1947 Construction of the 1935 wing of Suzzallo Library model of original plan for Suzzallo Library, 1923 Smith Room named, 1949 2 changes he had brought to the campus. Newly at national and international forums. The and housed what became known as the elected governor Roland H. Hartley regarded library building, which was to have been Charles W. Smith Pacifi c Northwest Collec- Suzzallo and his educational reforms as a the crown jewel of Suzzallo’s ongoing tion. From 1962 until 1990, the Smith Room University admin- was the home of the Special Collections and istration, became Preservation Division. Since the creation of Ex U President World Reknowned instead a magnif- the Allen Library, the Smith Room has been It isn’t often that a man who has been icent final tribute used primarily for classes, conferences and summarily removed from his post as to him. The library meetings for the Libraries and the University president of a university can become was offi cially named community. president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Henry Suzzallo Advancement of Teaching, an elector of the The Smith Room walls are covered with Hall of Fame or a Knight Commander in the Library in 1933, fol- Bebb & Gould, 1933. lowing his death. several large murals painted by Paul M. Order of the Crown of Italy. Gustin and John T. Henry Suzzallo, president of the University The Smith Room Jacobsen. The murals from 1915 to 1926, received honor after represent the history Eighteen terra-cotta figures symbolizing honor during his lifetime. But he didn’t see During the time that contributions to learning and culture grace and exploration of the eye to eye with Governor Roland H. Hartley. Suzzallo Reference niches on Suzzallo Library’s exterior. The Northwest, and include Dr. Suzzallo was at first supported by the was housed in its figures were created by Allan Clark, maps, topographical Board of Regents in his opposition to the original location in a young sculptor from Tacoma. The details and various subjects, selected by a panel of governor, so the governor appointed five the main portion of fl owers indigenous to UW faculty, include Moses, Louis new regents and succeeded in removing the Reading Room, Pasteur, Dante, Shakespeare, Plato, the Pacific North- him ...” the adjacent room to Benjamin Franklin, Justinian, west.

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