WHEN WE WERE NORMAL
A Historical Augmented Reality Walking Tour
Moving a Library – Twice
LOCATION: BY SANDERS 202
Long before ereaders and ebooks made moving books a breeze, the Fitchburg State Library moved twice: from Thompson Hall to Sanders and from Sanders to Hammond. The library was in Sanders from 1963 to 1975 during a period of rapid growth.
The original home of the library, Thompson Hall, could only hold about twenty thousand books. In a 1956 letter to Paul Knight, a business agent for the Department of Education, President Ralph Weston noted that the library at the time had 35,000 volumes while the standard amount of volumes for a school with 500 students was 50,000. Clearly, it was time to expand the collection.
With enrollment numbers expected to climb to 800 within the next few years, Weston petitioned for the funds for a 75,000 volume collection in a 8,800 square foot library. During much of its time in Sanders, the library’s budget was at least a quarter of the college's budget and in some cases, closer to 50%.
The library occupied the entirety of the first floor of Sanders and a portion of the second floor immediately east of the 150 seat lecture hall. The other 24,000 square feet were dedicated to the lecture hall, administrative offices, science labs, and a heater room.
And when it was time to move 35,000 books, who stood up for the task? Students moved the books from Thompson to Sanders box by box across the quad.
