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INDIANA 
 STATE NORMAL 
 LIBRARY 
 
 DEDICATION, JUNE 21, 1910 
 9:30 A. M. 
 
 Terre Haute 
 Indiana 
 
0 2_"1 2 .£ 
 
 BOARD OF TRUSTEES 
 
 William H. Armstrong, 
 James H. Tomlin, . . 
 
 Robert J. Aley, . . 
 
 Joshua Jump, . . . 
 
 Benjamin F. Louthain, 
 
 Indianapolis 
 . Evansville 
 Indianapolis 
 Terre Haute 
 . Logansport 
 
 President of the Faculty 
 
 William Wood Parsons 
 
 Vice-President 
 
 Howard Sandison 
 
 Dedication Committee 
 Professors Arthur Cunningham 
 John J. Schlicher, Frank S. Bogardus 
 5 
 
LIBRARY STAFF 
 
 Librarian 
 
 Arthur Cunningham 
 
 Assistant Librarians 
 
 Anne Claire Keating 
 Mabel E. Marshall 
 Helen M. Crane 
 Carabelle Greiner 
 Mary Zollinger 
 
 Janitor 
 
 Charles W. Call 
 
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PROGRAM OF DEDICATION 
 
 Captain W. H. Armstrong, Presiding 
 
 Music. 
 
 Prayer F. W. Hixson 
 
 Retrospect, President W. W. Parsons 
 Address . Dr. Demarchus C. Brown 
 
 “ The World of Men and the World of Books ” 
 
 Music. 
 
 Prospect, 
 
 Librarian Arthur Cunningham 
 
 Music. 
 
 Inspection of the Building 
 
 9 
 
MAIN FLOOR PLAN 
 
THE NEW LIBRARY 
 
 The new library of the Indiana 
 State Normal School is now finished — 
 a model of beanty and convenience. 
 The contract for this building was let 
 August 6, 1907, to Mr. August Ohm, 
 and was received by the board of trus- 
 tees December 17, 1909, thus requir- 
 ing nearly two years and a half for its 
 construction. 
 
 The legislature of 1907 appropri- 
 ated $99,970 for this purpose, but 
 other sums have been taken from gen- 
 eral funds of the institution, from 
 time to time, for enlarging the site 
 and the purchase of stacks and fur- 
 nishings, until the total cost has 
 necessarily reached nearly $150,000. 
 
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The result is the handsomest building 
 in the state devoted to library pur- 
 poses and is a durable and magnificent 
 monument to its system of public 
 schools. 
 
 In planning this building five dis- 
 tinct purposes have been kept con- 
 stantly in view: (1) safety; (2) 
 
 large storage capacity; (3) comfort 
 of the readers; (4) convenience of ad- 
 ministration; (5) architectural beauty. 
 
 It is estimated that the fifty thou- 
 sand volumes now on the shelves have 
 cost nearly one hundred thousand dol- 
 lars, two-thirds of which have been 
 contributed by the students in the 
 form of a general fee. If the library 
 were now destroyed, years of effort 
 would be required to gather together 
 such books and place them in the 
 same usable condition, and certainly 
 the work of the institution would be 
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crippled for a long time, since the 
 library has become the general labora- 
 tory, or workshop of the school. Many 
 of the books could not be replaced at 
 any reasonable cost, inasmuch as they 
 are out of print and so rare as to be 
 scarcely obtainable. These facts, as 
 well as actual experience in the loss of 
 one library, induced the board to plan 
 a fire-proof building. Stone, brick, 
 tile, cement, iron and glass are the ele- 
 ments of construction from foundation 
 to roof, wood being used for finishing 
 purposes only. The bookstacks are also 
 of iron, steel and glass. 
 
 During the first eighteen years of 
 the institution’s existence less than 
 five thousand volumes were collected, 
 all of which were destroyed by fire in 
 the spring of 1888. In the next seven- 
 teen years, to the abandonment of the 
 quarters in the main building in 1895, 
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ten thousand volumes were collected, 
 more than double the number of the 
 first period, and during the last fifteen 
 years forty thousand volumes have 
 been added to these, making a present 
 total of fifty thousand volumes. In 
 other words, the average yearly in- 
 crease during the first period was two 
 hundred and seventy-five volumes, in 
 the second period five hundred and 
 ninety, and during the recent period 
 twenty-seven hundred volumes have 
 been annually added to the collection. 
 
 These figures show the tendency of 
 the library to increase in a geometrical 
 ratio and the consequent necessity of 
 providing liberal storage room in the 
 new building. An immediate capacity 
 of one hundred thousand volumes and 
 an ultimate capacity of double this 
 number, without in any way altering 
 the building, has therefore been pro- 
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vided, and with suitable accretions, 
 the building may be made to serve the 
 institution indefinitely. The books are 
 now shelved mainly in a three-story 
 stack at the north extremity of the 
 building, having one floor on a level 
 with the general reading room, one be- 
 low and one above. There is room for 
 three additional stories above the tiers 
 now in place, which will be added 
 probably a tier at a time as occasion 
 demands. 
 
 But the books would avail us little, 
 if proper provision were not made for 
 the comfort of the readers while con- 
 sulting them. The large general read- 
 ing room, 60 x 80 feet, is therefore 
 made the most attractive room in the 
 building, and in position is next to 
 the stack. It is approached from the 
 front of the building by a wide corri- 
 dor, lighted from above by a dome 
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supported on a series of marbleized 
 columns, and floored with noiseless 
 cork carpet. 
 
 Below the windows on the east and 
 west sides, shelving will be placed in 
 the near future for the storage of the 
 general reference books and such 
 books as may be drawn from the stack 
 for temporary use by the various de- 
 partments of instruction, the object 
 being to obviate as much as possible 
 the confusion of books in the flack 
 and the frequent crossing of the rooms 
 to the disturbance of the readers. The 
 most-used books, of which there may 
 be a limited supply, are issued over 
 the charging desk. This is located at 
 the end of the corridor, facing the 
 main entrance, and thus commands all 
 the rooms on this floor, as well as the 
 stairways leading to the upper and 
 lower floors. 
 
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The stack is separated from the 
 reading room merely by a series of 
 columns and by counters which are 
 used for the temporary consultation of 
 books and for the storage of maps, 
 pamphlets and pictures. Two tiers of 
 the stack are thus made completely 
 visible from the charging desk, which 
 is located on the opposite side of the 
 reading room, as heretofore mentioned. 
 At each end of the stack is a hand 
 elevator for the hoisting of books. 
 
 To the left of the stack is a small 
 atlas room and one on the right for 
 the temporary storage and sorting of 
 pamphlets. To the right and left of 
 the corridor, with entrances from the 
 reading room, the offices and a large 
 well-lighted periodical room are lo- 
 cated. 
 
 Handsome stairways of marble and 
 bronze rise from the southeast and 
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southwest corners of the reading room 
 to the second floor and below these 
 are stairways to the basement. 
 
 On the second flo^r, occupying the 
 front portion of the building, are two 
 large rooms, one for the children of 
 the practice school who are taught to 
 make regular and systematic use of 
 the library, and the other for the 
 special storage and handling of art 
 books, rare books and pictures. Small 
 seminar rooms for the use of profes- 
 sors and advanced students occupy the 
 sides of the building, while the cor- 
 ridor about the rotunda will be used 
 as an art gallery. 
 
 In the basement, provision has been 
 made for a lecture room, binding and 
 storage rooms, cloak rooms and closets. 
 
 The building is heated successfully 
 by the Paul vacuum system of steam 
 heat and unusually well ventilated. It 
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is also thoroughly and beautifully 
 lighted with electricity, including table 
 lights on the main floor. 
 
 The meaning and purpose of this 
 building is well typified in the dome, 
 which sheds its beautiful soft light 
 over the reading room. In a setting of 
 opalescent art glass, there is, in the 
 zenith of the dome, a reproduction in 
 oil of Raphaels figure symbolizing 
 Philosophy, which, in the broad medi- 
 aeval usage, included all the liberal 
 arts and sciences. The original is 
 found in the ceiling of the most mag- 
 nificently decorated room in the world, 
 the Camera della Segnatura in the 
 Vatican palace at Rome. 
 
 Below this figure there is a series of 
 twenty-four wreathed medallions pierc- 
 ed by flaming torches, with an open 
 book in the center of each wreath. 
 Beneath the torches are the names of 
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noted philosophers and educators from 
 the earliest to the present time, in- 
 cluding the names of six Indiana edu- 
 cators, which occupy the last quadrant. 
 It seemed fitting to represent the 
 school in this list, and on the request 
 of the faculty and hundreds of stu- 
 dents, Dr. Parsons’s protest was over- 
 ruled and his name placed in the 
 dome, as a tribute to his long and 
 honorable career as a student of the 
 first graduating class and a life-time 
 of service to the institution and the 
 state. 
 
 On the lower part of the dome are 
 inscriptions, beginning with an extract 
 from the Ordinance of 1787, which 
 gave educational freedom to the North- 
 west, “Education shall be forever en- 
 couraged,” followed by another ex- 
 tract from the first Constitution of the 
 State of Indiana, 1816, “Knowledge 
 20 
 
and learning, generally diffused 
 through a community, essential to the 
 preservation of a free government. ’ ’ 
 Attention is here also called to the 
 Constitution of 1851, which gave 1 i A 
 general and uniform system of com- 
 mon schools, ’ ’ and to the act of the 
 legislature of 1865, which established 
 the Indiana State Normal School for 
 the ‘ ‘ Preparation of teachers. ’ ’ 
 
 Not less attention has been paid to 
 the external than to the internal ap- 
 pearance of the building. The general 
 style of architecture is Italian renais- 
 sance with Ionic pilasters, built of In- 
 diana limestone — chaste, massive, solid 
 and in complete accord with the pur- 
 pose for which it is used. Great credit 
 is due the architects, Messrs. Alex- 
 ander & Sons, for its excellent lines, 
 harmonies and proportions. 
 
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