Katy Agans
Contributing Writer
At Dominican, even the buildings get birthdays. The Rebecca Crown Library celebrated its 50-year anniversary on April 11.
The celebration is split into two different events. The first was a keynote speaker event, notes of interest from Rebecca Crown Library’s anniversary with presenter Steven Szegedi on April 11. The second is a coffee talk: discussion with School of Information Studies library directors on April 26.
Construction for the Rebecca Crown Library began in November 1968. By 1970 materials began to be moved into the building.
It was not until April 11, 1972, that the building was fully operational and officially opened, according to Steven Szegedi, archivist and special collections librarian at Dominican.
There were many reasons that Dominican decided to build the Rebecca Crown Library building, according to Szegedi.
“Mainly, we had too little space for the collections, too few librarians, and the desperate need for new facilities to accommodate all of the social, societal, and curricular changes occurring at Dominican – well, Rosary College at the time – as well as across the U.S.,” Szegedi said. “Our student enrollment was growing, the number of classes we offered, and the needs of the classes and faculty, were also growing. The Department of Library Science was approved to be a formal school at that time too. At the time the library school offered our only graduate degree, but six more were projected to by 1970. Plus, we went co-ed in 1970.”
Since it first opened in 1972, the Rebecca Crown has undergone some renovations in order to keep the library modern and technologically up to date.
In 1994 plans started to be put into place to renovate the library. This included making changes to the carpeting and lighting. The plans also included renovations that would make accommodations based on the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act.
These renovations took place in 2000-2002. During this time, the Cyber Café was added into the building and 50 computer workstations were added throughout the facility.
Special facilities like multimedia production rooms and meeting rooms were also added into the lower levels of the building during this time, according to Szegedi.
Prior to the construction of the Rebecca Crown Library building, there were a number of different spaces on campus used for the library over the years, Szegedi said.
“There was no formal library at first. Beginning in October of 1922 reference books were dispensed from packing cases on the third floor of Power Hall. Books considered essential were shelved for the first time in the third-floor lobby, whereafter the library moved to what was, until a few years ago, the Sisters’ community room (today’s Center for Cultural Liberation),” he said.
“From the start though there were plans to use space in Mazzuchelli – the entire second floor was initially intended for just the library, two spacious rooms with high arched ceilings. A tower that was planned for campus was never built either, so the chapel then had to take one of the two spacious rooms and is still there today” Szegedi said. “The library occupied one large room, with adjacent stack space, for 40 years, from 1931-1971, in what is today the Noonan.”
Today the Rebecca Crown Library is the heart of campus. Freshman Rachel Esser uses the resources and works at the library.
“The staff are super friendly and always super helpful when me or a patron have a question,” she said. “It’s been a really great experience working there and the library is a great source for students for help finding materials for their classes.”
