The People

The People

Jim Vastine shared his memories of the old building and how the staff worked and played together. “We used to be a closer-knit ‘family.’” He said. “As we’ve gotten larger and more spaced-out we tend to have lost some of that camaraderie that we used to have.” The Reference Department was located on the second floor, and so was Cataloging. Catalogers would have to walk through the Reference Department to get to the lobby and bathrooms. The frequent traffic encouraged friendly taunting and arguments between the personnel of the two departments. “Literally, the office where we worked was a passageway. To make it even more of a gathering place, the staff elevator emptied off right into the middle of the reference office.” The light-hearted conflict quickly gave way to camaraderie. 

Physical processing occupied a small space in the basement, adjacent to the television and radio stations. The loading docks ran directly into this part of the library, so any shipments to the stations went through physical processing. The library and media stations engaged in frequent conflicts over the meager space available. When the stations erected an antenna on the roof, some feared it would only be a matter of time before the stations squeezed the library out of the building. With so little room, departments gained and surrendered space on a regular basis, depending upon priorities. Working beside the then student-run radio station had its advantages. Walter Rowe remembers seeing various luminaries walking into the station for on-air interviews, including Jacques Cousteau and future U.S. President Jimmy Carter.  

Library-wide parties tended to be more festive in the old days, says Rowe. “We had these huge dinners,” Rowe remembers, with some employees exhibiting exceptional cooking skills. “It was more like a family then. In those days, I honestly felt like I was hanging out with my buddies. It was a smaller environment. It was a different world. A lot of these people are still very close friends. We were very lucky. I remember doing a river trip up in Ocala [in 1975]. You didn’t know who was a librarian and who was an LTA, clerk or whatever. We were just a bunch of guys who worked in a library and we were hanging out.  

“The library would have these huge picnics, generally at Lowry Park, because they allowed beer, of course. We’d play softball—we were all a lot younger then—and play volleyball. We’d have people who could really cook. It was a wonderful event that you really wanted to go to.”

The spirit of cooperation carried over into the workplace. In 1974, Mary Lou Harkness established a library staff committee, with each department contributing a representative. The committee met every month, solicited problems from the staff, worked up solutions or, if necessary, referred the matter to a higher authority with its recommendations.
Vastine commented:  

“They were given free rein to contact any one on campus. If there was something involving a stinky drain in the bathroom, like today, we had full rein to contact the Physical Plant and talk to them about it. When all else failed, we’d go to Mary Lou… . We’d make recommendations on library policy, and she could take it or leave it. When the library staff committee first met, we had a list of items about a yard long, at least. What we found was that over the years, the committee almost became unnecessary because there were no problems anymore because the committee would usually solve them on their own.” 

Improvements proceeded at a rapid pace during the 1980s and 90s. Student identification cards with magnetic strips replaced IBM punch cards. Catalogers went from changing one line of each record at a time in OCLC—and waiting for the slow computers to process them—to much faster online systems. Then catalogers waited for the cards to arrive for filing in the drawers of the card catalog. Card catalogs gave way to searchable online catalogs around 1986. Keeth went from writing new acquisitions on index cards to entering them into a computer. 

The library has progressed so much so that it seems unlikely that our 21st Century patrons would have the patience for the library of old, and some old-school librarians would not have the patience to learn today’s technology. Present-day students rarely have the patience for printers and slow Internet access, never mind filling out forms to check out books and keeping track of IBM cards. Progress is not always fun or easy, but its fruits are many, and the library functions on a scale and efficiency that could scarcely be imagined in 1960.   

The Oral History Program at the USF Libraries recorded the thoughts and memories of over 200 current and former students, faculty, administrators, and community friends in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the University. The memories of several library personnel were included:

Florence Jandreau worked with USF for 50 years, the longest serving non-faculty staff member. Her memories were captured in an oral history and exhibit: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/40825c8237064eb6aa23a5def71f5949 prior to her retiring from the library. 

A long series of governors, USF presidents, deans, directors librarians and staff have all made their mark over the past fifty years, but library faculty and staff have been the backbone of the institution. The library has greatly expanded, but ties of friendship and camaraderie remain. We still laugh together and play together, but perhaps most importantly—we still break bread together, whether chatting over a sandwich in a break room or piling plates high at a holiday party.