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[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” background_color=”RGBA(255,255,255,0)” width=”100%” max_height=”1031px” custom_margin=”1px|auto|-1px|auto|false|false” custom_padding=”11px|55px|0px|||” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text quote_border_color=”#12876F” _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”Didact Gothic||||||||” text_text_color=”#000000″ text_font_size=”18px” header_2_text_color=”#006484″ header_2_font_size=”30px” background_color=”#FFFFFF” text_orientation=”justified” min_height=”221.3px” custom_margin=”15px|-57px|-1px|||” custom_padding=”0px|29px|4px|||” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
The new building was impressive, and opened in time for fall session on September 15, 1975. \u201cMany of us were convinced that we would never find our way around the building,\u201d Vastine recalls, \u201cit was so big compared to what we were used to. Even the faculty was concerned about finding their way out.\u201d Some could not find their way out of the new elevators, which constantly broke down. No air conditioning reached the top two floors until a helicopter airlifted a unit to the roof. Trendy decorators decked out the library in 70s colors: with the carpet aligned with the color-coded stacks. \u201cIt looked good at first,\u201d Vastine relates, \u201cbut it didn\u2019t age well.\u201d Harrison Covington, the former Dean of the College of Fine Arts, won the contest to supply the new building with a piece of original art. With a central figure based upon Leonardo da Vinci\u2019s sketch \u201cProportions of Man,\u201d the sculpture depicts the transfer of knowledge over generations.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cIt was built with special care because the dirt was excavated. The hole was filled with what they call grout, I guess, and was vibrated and then a grid was put over it, more concrete poured, vibrated, finally they put on that hole the weight of the building and the books so that the library was well built, sturdily built, and was really the most important building on campus. And, the librarian was the first appointment.\u201d<\/span><\/span> – Grace Allen<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n
[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”http:\/\/lib.usf.edu\/library50thanniversary\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/71\/2025\/01\/A-0046-scaled.jpg” title_text=”A-0046″ _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” width=”68%” module_alignment=”center” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_gallery gallery_ids=”332,333,334,335″ show_title_and_caption=”off” show_pagination=”off” _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” min_height=”171.3px” custom_margin=”||0px|||” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_gallery][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”Didact Gothic||||||||” text_font_size=”18px” text_orientation=”justified” custom_margin=”||20px|||” custom_padding=”||11px|||” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
Students came back in droves to study and converse. \u201cBy the time we moved,\u201d Harkness said, \u201cwe were serving twenty thousand students and had about four hundred and fifty thousand volumes. Now that shows, I think, how rapidly both University enrollment grew and the University library grew.\u201d The influential anthropologist Margaret Mead attended the dedication of the new library on March 6, 1976. When students tried to disrupt her speech with protests, she shut them down, saying it was not the time or place.<\/p>\n
President John Lott Brown, exasperated by the high cost of running an academic library, searched for unorthodox solutions in the 1980s. \u201cWe\u2019re running out of space and the cost is just too high (to run conventional libraries).\u201d Brown proposed a gradual transition to electronic storage of information, beginning with increased microfiche storage. He also proposed that the microfiche readers may eventually be \u201creplaced by electronic systems capable of scanning the page of a book in a fraction of a second.\u201d According to the Oracle<\/em>, by 1992, students might be able to \u201cturn to the University-loaned computer terminal in his or her room, phone the information center to request the journal and \u2013 Presto! the journal appears on the computer screen.\u201d The library began to convert some major journals to microfiche, in part to modernize, but mostly for protection.<\/p>\n
The St. Petersburg campus completed the attractive Nelson Poynter Library in 1981, named after the publisher of the St. Petersburg Times<\/em>. The fledgling Sarasota campus gained a library in 1985, as did New College in 1986 (which was under USF\u2019s administration from 1975 to 2001).<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_gallery gallery_ids=”365,366,368,367″ orientation=”portrait” show_title_and_caption=”off” show_pagination=”off” _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” min_height=”308.4px” custom_margin=”11px||1px|||” custom_padding=”||0px|||” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_gallery][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”Didact Gothic||||||||” text_font_size=”18px” header_2_font=”Didact Gothic||||||||” header_2_text_color=”#006484″ header_2_font_size=”30px” text_orientation=”justified” width=”100%” min_height=”265.4px” custom_margin=”|112px||||” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
Pests and Disasters<\/h2>\n
A plague of insects prompted the purchase of a $9,000 machine to root them out in the late 1970s, but one of the library\u2019s worst disasters took place in 1980, Rowe recalls. The building\u2019s air conditioning was shut down over a hot summer weekend. By Monday, white mold covered many of the books. \u201cWe tried to wipe them down the best we could [using] an alcohol solution, which now is really against the rules. If we were shelving, we were wiping. We had people who would not go to the 5th floor\u201d because of their sensitivity to the outbreak. Rowe commented that the 5th floor was not quite right for about twenty years after. In 1985, mildew became the latest physical crisis, with fans running on all floors.<\/p>\n
Other parts of the library never seemed quite right, the elevators being one of them. After two students free-fell one story in an elevator, thudding on the basement below, library employees reacted with no excitement to the rattled students: \u201cIt slips all the time.\u201d \u201cWe\u2019re not indifferent to the problem,\u201d explained Library Director Mary Lou Harkness, \u201cwe have continuing minor problems with the elevators.\u201d[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”http:\/\/lib.usf.edu\/library50thanniversary\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/71\/2025\/02\/libMold-o-3-4-87.jpg” title_text=”libMold-Oracle-3-4-87″ align=”center” _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” width=”41%” module_alignment=”center” custom_margin=”1px|116px|13px|||” custom_padding=”|1px||||” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” width=”83%” min_height=”638.1px” custom_margin=”|165px|-4px|196px||” custom_padding=”4px|31px|24px|0px||” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_post_nav prev_text=”History of the Space” next_text=”A Space for Students” _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” title_font=”|600|||||||” title_text_color=”#44580E” width=”100%” min_height=”3.8px” custom_margin=”16px|12px||||” custom_padding=”7px|0px||30px||” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_post_nav][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The “New” Library (1975)Opening of the Current Library The new building was impressive, and opened in time for fall session on September 15, 1975. \u201cMany of us were convinced that we would never find our way around the building,\u201d Vastine recalls, \u201cit was so big compared to what we were used to. Even the faculty […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":28,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lib.usf.edu\/library50thanniversary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lib.usf.edu\/library50thanniversary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lib.usf.edu\/library50thanniversary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lib.usf.edu\/library50thanniversary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lib.usf.edu\/library50thanniversary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2"}],"version-history":[{"count":32,"href":"https:\/\/lib.usf.edu\/library50thanniversary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":482,"href":"https:\/\/lib.usf.edu\/library50thanniversary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2\/revisions\/482"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lib.usf.edu\/library50thanniversary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/28"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lib.usf.edu\/library50thanniversary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}