The Ohio State University Libraries: Service Beyond the Campus Walls
Brit, thank you for that very nice introduction, and thank you and Mrs. Kirwan for hosting this evening’s dinner in your lovely new home. I needn’t tell you how important President Kirwan’s support and interest are to our library program at Ohio State, and he has been unwavering in his commitment to make us one of the truly great research libraries of the world.
And we are getting there! Last summer the Chronicle of Higher Education reported that the Ohio State University Library was now ranked as the 18th strongest in North America – and 11th when measured again other publicly supported university libraries. That’s an improvement of eight places since 1994 when we were ranked 26th. We have made steady progress in the last decade, as our print and digital collections have expanded and our services improved.
I am a little worried about the economic downturn we are now facing in higher education in Ohio, but this downturn is not confined to just our State or our sector of the economy. Ed Ray, the University’s Provost and another champion of our library program, told me not too long ago to think positive. Not only do we need to see the glass as half full rather than half empty, we need to believe that someone will come along soon and fill that half-full glass to brimming. That’s real optimism, and it’s coming from a Provost who is an economist! I do believe our national economy is fundamentally strong, that our downturn is temporary, and that higher education and libraries in Ohio will emerge from this short recession stronger than ever.
Our plans to restore and renovate our Main Library at the center of campus are still very much on track. This month we will finish a yearlong feasibility study conducted by the architectural team of URS in Columbus and Shepley Bulfinch Richardson and Abbott in Boston. Charlie Rodenfeld and his wife Jan are with us tonight. Charlie was responsible for putting the winning team and proposal together for this project. Also from URS, Randy Kirschner and his wife Vicky are here. We have worked with Randy on almost a daily basis for the last year in preparing the Feasibility Study. Our architects have given us an excellent plan of action and a range of exciting options for remaking this landmark library building. We remain the number one priority on the University’s request list for State capital funds in 2003, and we are beginning to lay the groundwork for a very important fund raising campaign. If all goes well, our glass will be brimming full, and reconstruction of the Main Library will begin in 2005, just three short years away.
A few weeks ago I gave President Kirwan a preview of the plans coming from our architectural feasibility study for the Main Library renovation. I remember very clearly at one point he said to me, “Joe, have you ever seen a building that held so much promise on the outside but was such a let down on the inside.” I promise -- that with all your help -- we are going to change this situation by remaking the Main Library into a facility we can be proud of inside and out.
I have been the Director of Libraries at Ohio State for two years now. When my wife, Anita, and I arrived in Columbus two Decembers ago, we were simply amazed by the high spirit, interest, and support shown by this community for its University. And we continue to see this close connection wherever we go. Our library is blessed with absolutely wonderful friends and supporters, and you are here this evening. You are community and business leaders, attorneys, publishers, authors, serious readers, former college presidents, university provosts, and deans. You are friends like Floradelle Pfahl, who at last week’s Autumn Commencement was given the University’s highest honor, the Distinguished Service Award, for her outstanding support of the University and of many civic, cultural, and community life activities in Columbus. Congratulations Floradelle.
I wonder what makes this community so caring and high-spirited? Certainly it is the result of committed, engaged individuals like you. You believe it is important to share your talent and success to help build a better community. I think of library friends like George Foster, who is here this evening. George is a successful scientist, inventor, and businessman; but he does not rest on these laurels. His community extends to the whole world as he takes on the needs of others, ranging from those of our library to those afflicted by the unrest and violence in the Middle East.
I hope our University and our Library are worthy of such loyal and generous friends. We did beat Michigan in football in Ann Arbor a few weeks ago, and that surely helps the spirit! Speaking of Michigan, Fred Ruffner from Detroit is here tonight. Fred is an Ohio State alumnus, a publisher every librarian admires for the essential reference tools he produces. He was chairman of the University's first development campaign. He has suggested that we try to do something in a cooperative way with the University of Michigan Libraries, and we are. We are sharing our online catalogs, giving priority document delivery to each other, and planning a joint traveling exhibit next year during football season on the art of sports that will be drawn from both our extensive University archives.
Many of you are alumni of the University, and I hope your positive educational and social experiences as students are reasons for your continuing support. My daughter, Sara, is a second year graduate student at Ohio State, and she has become a real Buckeye in a short period of time. She has nothing but good things to say about her faculty and her program in statistics, which is the bane of most students. She has made many new friends, enjoys our beautiful campus, and most importantly, she always returns her books to the library on time. Jo and Bob Winzeler from Montpelier, Ohio, are alumni who I know met at Ohio State as students. They are great advocates for reading and libraries, and are two of our earliest and most enthusiastic supporter for the renovation of the Main Library. I always feel so motivated after meeting with them. I just learned at dinner tonight that two of our new friends, Len and Connie Zuga, have very fond memories of the University. Len proposed to Connie in the Main Library!
What else motivates this special commitment of the community to Ohio State? There is just one final reason I want to mention, and I have to thank Charlie Cole for this. Charlie is not an alumnus, but he is one of the most engaged leaders and volunteers in our Library Friends group, which by the way now numbers 2,100 members strong. Charlie is a former college president and director of the Ohio Humanities Council, and he remains an active researcher and writer. His latest book, published this year by the Ohio University Press is entitled A Fragile Capital: Identity and the Early Years of Columbus, Ohio. Charlie, I want you to know we have purchased several copies of your book for the library, and they are being checked out.
I ran into Charlie in the Main Library a few weeks ago, and I told him I was having trouble coming up with a topic for my after dinner speech at the President’s house. (As you have probably experienced, after dinner speeches are hard to sit through – they are even harder to prepare!) With only a moment’s hesitation, Charlie told me to talk about the Morrill Act. Since I work in the Main Library, I didn’t have to go far to do a little research on this Act.
In 1862 the United States Congress passed, and President Abraham Lincoln signed, the Morrill Act, which provided for the sale of federal lands to create endowments for land-grant colleges “where the leading objects shall be without excluding other scientific and classical studies, and including military tactics, to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts, in such a manner as the legislatures of the states may respectively prescribe, in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions of life.” These new land-grant colleges were a revolutionary change from the private colleges of the time that admitted only the wealthy and limited the curriculum to ancient languages, rhetoric, and a smattering of math and science. (I want to note here that the Morrill Act did not exclude classical studies, and Ohio State has a fine program in classical and ancient language studies thanks to the eminence of such scholars and teachers as Emeritus Professor Charles Babcock who is here this evening.)
The land-grant mission of relevance, service, and outreach to the broader public that includes the industrial or working class has been a defining element of Ohio State University, and I think it is an important reason why the community in turn supports Ohio State so well. We are by our very nature a University that is meant to be an integral part of the Ohio and the national community.
It took the Ohio Legislature about ten years to take full advantage of the Morrill Act to create Ohio State University, but we have become one of the great modern land-grant universities of this nation. There are visible manifestations of the Morrill Act all over our campus. We have Morrill and Lincoln Towers along the Olentangy River. Canon Drive is named after Reuben Canon and the Canon Act of 1870, which created the state land-grant college in Columbus, at first called the Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College. Our Main Library is named after William Oxley Thompson, President of the University from 1899 to 1925, during whose tenure the Cooperative Extension Service, the OSU Hospitals, the College of Education, and research bureaus that provide expertise in business and social research were created.
There is not enough time for me to describe all the ways the University Library engages in outreach, but I assure you it is an essential part of our mission. From library staff who volunteer in the community to teach reading appreciation to providing a testbed for the creation of international information service companies such as OCLC or Chemical Abstracts, the library at Ohio State has an important impact on the local, state, and national community. We are a founding member and a leader in OhioLINK, the very best statewide library cooperative in the nation. Through this kind of outreach and cooperation we serve our community and ourselves in an effective way that is the envy of the rest of the nation. We lend and borrow more reading material than just about any other research library. (We are usually ranked first or second in this category). The array of online services we offer our students and faculty is also the best in the country thanks to our cooperative approach in Ohio. All our library facilities on campus are open to the public, and we stress service in all our staff training and evaluation.
Yes, the renovation of our Main Library is a high priority, but we must remember that this facility is really a means and not an end in itself. Our real purpose is to serve the information needs of our students, faculty, and community. As a land-grant research library, we take this service to the community very seriously. We will continue to build our collections and facilities on campus, but we will always extend our services beyond the campus boundaries through traditional and new outreach activities.
Thank you. I wish you all a joyous and peaceful holiday season.
Joseph Branin
December 12, 2001