North Quadrangle Library
With the opening of the new library, the collection expanded on a massive scale. In 1929, freshman students were required to take a one-hour, non-prepared course called "Use of the Library." The collection was also continuing grow and a second cataloger was added to the staff and four courses were offered in library science in 1930. In 1931, the audio-visual collection became one of the most important in the College Library including more than 1,300 mounted pictures, two lanterns, twelve stereoscopes, and 1,500 slides. The library hours were extended to 64 hours during the week.
In 1932, the West Wing was expanded in an architectural project costing $43,000. The additional space doubled the existing capacity and provided offices and classroom space to the library. In this year, the library also began to build a collection of school textbooks. The next year, more library courses were offered to prepare students to qualify for a library science license and the first master's thesis was submitted to the library by L.H. DeMoss.
1936 is the beginning of inter-library loan services and the audio-visual collection grew to include 5,200 mounted pictures, maps, and other types of exhibits. By 1937, the total number of books in circulation was 65,000. In 1939, the library began to charge fines for overdue materials and increased their hours per week to 72.
In 1940, the library introduced the first electrically-operated charging machine to decrease the workload on personnel. By 1941, the library had over 83,000 books, 7,300 bound periodicals, 700 reference books, and 320 annual periodicals. Due to the growing number of materials and services, the library also added a Technical Services department. In 1947, the library hired their first film librarian, followed by the addition of a Periodical Service department and periodical service librarian the next year.
As the audio-visual collection continued to increase, the library purchased their first microfilm reader in 1949. In 1950, the Film Service department was created with a collection of 346 films. Due the continuous increase in materials, staff, and academic enrollment, a new wing was completed in February of 1955. This expansion cost $610,246 and house the divisions of Reference Service, Loan Service, Technical Service, Curriculum Laboratory, Teaching Materials Service, Film Service, Periodical Service, and eventually Film Service.
By 1961, the library's collection included 225,000 books, 1,273 periodical subscriptions, 792 films, 2,433 filmstrips, 2,152 disc recordings, 584 tapes, and 6,000 slides. The library personnel included 21 librarians, 17 clerical assistants, and over 100 student assistants. In 1962, the library received their first installment of Sir Norman Angell papers and the next year, the 250,000th book was purchased, Shakespeare: Ten Great Plays. In 1965, the title of the library was changed to the Ball State University Library and the library adopted the Library of Congress classification system. With a new president, the university decided to begin plans for a new library in 1968. On May 24, 1972, the construction began on the new building and on February 20, 1973, the library was officially named Alexander M. Bracken Library after the honored Ball State trustee. In August 1975, Library Movers of America contracted to move more than 700,000 books, thousands of periodicals and government documents, microfilms, microfiche, and micro records to the new library. The new library officially opened for service on September 9, 1975.
With the opening of the new library, the collection expanded on a massive scale. In 1929, freshman students were required to take a one-hour, non-prepared course called "Use of the Library." The collection was also continuing grow and a second cataloger was added to the staff and four courses were offered in library science in 1930. In 1931, the audio-visual collection became one of the most important in the College Library including more than 1,300 mounted pictures, two lanterns, twelve stereoscopes, and 1,500 slides. The library hours were extended to 64 hours during the week.
In 1932, the West Wing was expanded in an architectural project costing $43,000. The additional space doubled the existing capacity and provided offices and classroom space to the library. In this year, the library also began to build a collection of school textbooks. The next year, more library courses were offered to prepare students to qualify for a library science license and the first master's thesis was submitted to the library by L.H. DeMoss.
1936 is the beginning of inter-library loan services and the audio-visual collection grew to include 5,200 mounted pictures, maps, and other types of exhibits. By 1937, the total number of books in circulation was 65,000. In 1939, the library began to charge fines for overdue materials and increased their hours per week to 72.
In 1940, the library introduced the first electrically-operated charging machine to decrease the workload on personnel. By 1941, the library had over 83,000 books, 7,300 bound periodicals, 700 reference books, and 320 annual periodicals. Due to the growing number of materials and services, the library also added a Technical Services department. In 1947, the library hired their first film librarian, followed by the addition of a Periodical Service department and periodical service librarian the next year.
As the audio-visual collection continued to increase, the library purchased their first microfilm reader in 1949. In 1950, the Film Service department was created with a collection of 346 films. Due the continuous increase in materials, staff, and academic enrollment, a new wing was completed in February of 1955. This expansion cost $610,246 and house the divisions of Reference Service, Loan Service, Technical Service, Curriculum Laboratory, Teaching Materials Service, Film Service, Periodical Service, and eventually Film Service.
By 1961, the library's collection included 225,000 books, 1,273 periodical subscriptions, 792 films, 2,433 filmstrips, 2,152 disc recordings, 584 tapes, and 6,000 slides. The library personnel included 21 librarians, 17 clerical assistants, and over 100 student assistants. In 1962, the library received their first installment of Sir Norman Angell papers and the next year, the 250,000th book was purchased, Shakespeare: Ten Great Plays. In 1965, the title of the library was changed to the Ball State University Library and the library adopted the Library of Congress classification system. With a new president, the university decided to begin plans for a new library in 1968. On May 24, 1972, the construction began on the new building and on February 20, 1973, the library was officially named Alexander M. Bracken Library after the honored Ball State trustee. In August 1975, Library Movers of America contracted to move more than 700,000 books, thousands of periodicals and government documents, microfilms, microfiche, and micro records to the new library. The new library officially opened for service on September 9, 1975.
North Quadrangle Building Library, 1926
Information gained through conversations with Ball University Staff and from http://cms.bsu.edu/academics/libraries/collectionsanddept/archives/collections/universityarchives/exhibits/bracken/ablibrary and http://cms.bsu.edu/academics/libraries/collectionsanddept/archives/collections/universityarchives/exhibits/bracken/timeline