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President Allen saw the library as the \u201cexciting\u201d geographic and ideological center of the university. With no art gallery or museum on campus, the library filled in with regular exhibitions and special events. Allen envisioned a library with open stacks and easy browsing like a supermarket. At five stories tall, it was the campus\u2019s highest structure, to \u201csymbolize it as the heart of the campus.\u201d <\/p>\n
With a small staff, it took a full eight months to move into the $1.5-million library building in 1960-61. The library opened in April 1961 with a concert and art exhibit attended by 1,300. A year later, the Special Collections Room opened in honor of National Library Week. The library\u2019s rare books, Florida collection, and USF\u2019s fledgling archive were housed there. All academic departments sent their minutes and notes to the library to be preserved in the university archives. <\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”http:\/\/lib.usf.edu\/library50thanniversary\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/71\/2025\/01\/lib-old-usf-lib-scaled.jpg” title_text=”lib old-usf-lib” align=”center” _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” width=”59%” max_width=”100%” module_alignment=”center” custom_margin=”|||1px||” custom_padding=”|0px||||” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” text_text_color=”#000000″ text_font_size=”18px” text_orientation=”justified” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n
In 1966, Library Director Elliot Hardaway sought a new building as enrollment reached 10,000, the number of students the original library had been designed for. Mary Lou Harkness became the library\u2019s second director in 1967 and continued the quest for a new graduate research library. Librarians created a course called \u201cHow to Use the USF Library,\u201d the first of its kind, and enrolled students to help teach classes. The library expanded in 1970, but struggled to keep pace with the growing student body.<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”http:\/\/lib.usf.edu\/library50thanniversary\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/71\/2025\/02\/convbook12-scaled.jpeg” title_text=”convbook12″ _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” width=”90%” module_alignment=”center” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_gallery gallery_ids=”161,162,163,159″ show_title_and_caption=”off” show_pagination=”off” zoom_icon_color=”RGBA(255,255,255,0)” hover_overlay_color=”RGBA(255,255,255,0)” _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” width=”100%” height=”180px” custom_margin=”||7px|0px|false|false” custom_padding=”||16px|0px|false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_gallery][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” min_height=”886.2px” custom_margin=”2px|auto||auto||” custom_padding=”4px|||||” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”Didact Gothic||||||||” text_text_color=”#000000″ text_font_size=”18px” header_2_font=”||||||||” header_2_text_color=”#006484″ header_2_font_size=”30px” text_orientation=”justified” min_height=”408px” custom_margin=”-4px||-1px|||” custom_padding=”||27px|||” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
Work began on the new library building in December 1972. With construction well underway, President Mackey ordered an additional two floors to be added to the structure, for a total of seven, including the basement. In retrospect, the added floors were a wise move, and added space for another quarter-million volumes, bringing total capacity to more than a million.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Crews completed the present-day library in April 1975, but no funds remained to move the books and equipment. The new library building remained empty while the staff awaited the new fiscal year in their cramped quarters. USF hired a moving company that was soon overwhelmed with the responsibility of actually moving the books in order. Librarians, resourceful as they are, devised a decidedly low-tech method for organizing the books while moving. They took a piece of string with a knot at either end that measured eighteen inches. Librarians measured out eighteen inches on each range and marked the increments with an IBM card, which at the time were used to keep track of circulation. The movers then removed that portion of books to be neatly stacked on large book trucks. Movers pushed the loaded trucks up ramps, out the windows, and onto an improvised elevator, or \u201cbuck hoist,\u201d on the outside of the building, to waiting moving vans.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cEvery piece had a tag on it, saying exactly where it was going to go,\u201d Camp says, including books, furniture and waste baskets. Vastine remembers with pride, \u201c[W]e were able to move from that building to this building, lock stock and barrel, in one month. 450,000 volumes.\u201d Thirty to fifty people worked on the transfer at a given time, and the shelves themselves weighed 310,000 pounds. Rowe called the move \u201cabsolute insanity,\u201d while Paul Camp called it \u201ca nameless horror.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_gallery gallery_ids=”317,318,320,319″ show_title_and_caption=”off” show_pagination=”off” _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”||2px|||” custom_padding=”||0px|||” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_gallery][et_pb_post_nav prev_text=”Exhibit Home” next_text=”The New Library” _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” title_font=”|600|||||||” title_text_color=”#44580E” custom_padding=”0px||25px|||” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_post_nav][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" History of the SpaceThe History of Library Spaces President Allen saw the library as the \u201cexciting\u201d geographic and ideological center of the university. With no art gallery or museum on campus, the library filled in with regular exhibitions and special events. Allen envisioned a library with open stacks and easy browsing like a supermarket. At […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":0,"parent":28,"menu_order":1,"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-33","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lib.usf.edu\/library50thanniversary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/33","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\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lib.usf.edu\/library50thanniversary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33"}],"version-history":[{"count":31,"href":"https:\/\/lib.usf.edu\/library50thanniversary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/33\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":477,"href":"https:\/\/lib.usf.edu\/library50thanniversary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/33\/revisions\/477"}],"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=33"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}