Middleton Library turns 50

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By Tim Jones

On Friday, Oct. 23, LSU's Middleton Library turned 50.

Originally opened in 1959, the library was later renamed for Troy H. Middleton, who was not only a three star general and veteran of both World Wars but also the very president of LSU who argued for and won the funding to build the library. Before Middleton Library existed, Hill Memorial was LSU's only library, and as early as 1941, the library had so many books and so little space that shelving extended into the library staff's offices. At that time LSU had a student population of over 7,500, and Hill had seats for only 375.

Middleton was originally built with two stories and enough space for 22 miles of shelves, holding up to a million books and seating for 2,500 students. Construction was finished in late 1957, when LSU held a contest with a $25 grand prize to decide on the best way to move books from their old home in Hill to the new library. The winning idea was a sort of cable car sysatem for books with a pulley and cable strung between the two libraries carrying books in a tray underneath. LSU's book collection again outgrew its berth by 1965, when it was forced to host some of the volumes in branch libraries. Luckily, the LSU administration managed to finagle the state legislature into funding an expansion, and the third and fourth floors were completed in 1984.

Things have changed quite a bit in the fifty years Middleton's been around. It now has over 3 million books, 12 million manuscripts, 2000 seats, and 300-plus computers. Assistant Dean of Libraries, Nancy Colyar, expounded upon the history and importance of technology in Middleton.

"[The] computers have arrived and become essential for the people using the library, as well as for library staff to do their jobs" Colyar said. "The reference staff received their first IBM PCs the month I started working at LSU in 1987. We received our first databases on CD-ROM shortly after. Those were one user per CD, not networked at all. Before that, all the resources were in print. You had to take notes by hand, and if you wanted them readable, you had to type them up. Instead of computers, the Union used to have a typing room."

But Middleton has considerably more than just books and computers on which to half work and half check Facebook every ten minutes. There's the fantastically cool basement level which stores shelves upon shelves of microfiches including editions of the New York Times all the way back to the mid-nineteenth century and issues of Rolling Stone from when it was actually worth reading. The basement also has the government materials collection, which as this writer learned on an assignment last year, includes a surprising amount of comic books about proper weapon and vehicle maintenance.

Besides the aforementioned computers, the first floor has some pretty great stuff. Well okay, some of the computers have dual monitors, and that's cool. There's the wonderful reference desk, which not only features a rotating crew of fine people who have an arcane knowledge of the library, but also staplers, devices of the utmost importance to make it not look like you just finished your paper minutes before class. And of course there's the café, whose very inception in 2006 was enough to make the library relax its previous ban on drinks, though they are still banned from the Music Resources and Government Document rooms.

On the second floor, there are, of course, more computers but also two lesser known rooms that host great collections. There's the Young People's Collection in the Education Resources room where you can pick up a book you might've loved in your childhood or check out some more recent young readers' fiction that holds its own against what's aimed at grown-ups like Neil Gaiman's Graveyard Book. It'll also be hosting the Banned Books exhibit until November 9. The other is the Music Resources room, which has an extensive library of sheet music from the Baroque period all the way to modern popular music, including a complete volume of The Beatles sheet music.

But as far as how useful the library is, don't just take my word for it. Here are some things students had to say about Middleton:

"I like the library because it is a good place with a central location for people who live in different dorms to convene and work on group projects," said Taylor Campbell, a freshman biochemistry major.

"I'm in there all the time because it's a good place to sit down and do a crossword puzzle," said Aaron Friedman, a sophomore English major.

"The best part about the library is that it allows you to do research that would usually require hours in both travel and effort in one place," said freshman biology major Rachel Neal.

Middleton Library is open from 7:15 a.m.-midnight Monday-Thursday, 7:15 a.m. - 8 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday and 12 p.m.-midnight Sunday.

Originally Published: Issue 822 - November 4, 2009

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