Richardson Library Celebrates 40th Anniversary

November 2, 2016 Katelyn Thompson, Staff Reporter, The Brand

The Richardson Library will be celebrating the 40th anniversary of the building on Thursday. The program will begin at 2 p.m. and continue until 4 p.m., starting with a short program outside of the building before moving inside for a reception. 

  “Anyone and everyone is welcome to come. Students, alumni, faculty – anyone who feels that they are a friend to the library is invited,” Belinda Norvell, associate director for university libraries and technical services librarian, said. 

  Although the actual anniversary of the building is Nov. 6, library faculty have chosen to celebrate the entire week before the anniversary.

  “There’s going to be photograph exhibits around the library starting on Oct. 31. The exhibit is going to be a really interesting, visual display of HSU history,” Norvell said.

The main celebration on Nov. 3 will be full of Hardin-Simmons history.

“The program outside will be similar to the original dedication of the building forty years ago. We’re going to have a former faculty member who’s on the board of trustees now, Dr. George Newman, tell everyone about life on campus forty years ago. Hardin Simmons’ current faculty member, Dr. Randy Armstrong, will tell everyone about Dr. and Mrs. Richardson, the couple the building was named after,” Norvell said.

Although this is only the 40th year of the Richardson Library at Hardin-Simmons, there had been a library on campus since the university was founded. The original library was donated by the Simmons family, and as the campus grew, the second and third floors of the Sandefer Memorial building became the library.

“It was never a good thing. There wasn’t enough space for all of the materials, so most of them ended up stored in the basements of buildings all over campus. If a student needed something out of a book that wasn’t in the library, someone would have to track it down and go dig through the storage in a basement,” Norvell said.

With a library system that was far from convenient, it is not surprising that Hardin-Simmons students led the campaign for a building dedicated solely to the library. In an attempt to raise the funds needed for the building, students on campus began to save bottle caps to sell as salvaged metal.

 An edition of the Brand  published in Dec. of 1971 explained how students worked to save one million bottle caps while asking for $10 pledges to the Library Fund if their goal was met. After surpassing their goal, the bottle caps were sold for a total of $18.57 and the pledges earned amounted to a grand total of $570.67. Overall, the Richardson Library was financed by students, faculty, trustees and other donors.

 

 

 

 

 

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