Description
Library staff are gathered in front of the east entrance to the library for a group photograph. Row 1 (left to right) Mrs. Severa Vandergaast, Mrs. Sidney Chang, Karen Huisman, Cheryll Rankin, Gayle Thorson, Sonia Leistad, Sharon Snelling, Mrs. Mary Lou Wiebe, Mildred Danielson, Mrs. Helen Lentner. Row 2 - Miss Grace Oberheim, Miss Frances Warner, Miss Margaret Orr, Mrs. Judy Madsen, Miss Janette Buck, Mrs. Caroline Gill, Mrs. Sue Hanson, Mrs. Eugenia Harris, Mrs. Mildred McCone, Sharon Stolte. Row 3 - Mrs. Donna Hellinga, Mrs. Phyllis Murrell, Mrs. Roxanne Murray, Mrs. Tonie Whitman, Mrs. Sandra Gay, Mrs. Karee Henshaw. Row 4 - Mrs. Jeanette Gilchrist, Mrs. Karen Heald, Mrs. Wanda Borchers, John Galejs, John McNee, Miss Elizabeth Windsor, Mrs. Dorothy Kehlenbeck, Mrs. Helen Zickefoose, Grant Hanson. Row 5 - Robert W. Orr, Miss Evelyn Wimersberger, Mrs. Matyne Easton, Mrs. Eva Robbins, Miss E. Marjorie Smith
The library was first housed in Old Main, which also contained the college's reception room, lecture hall, specimen museum, students' rooms, a chapel, kitchen, laundry, and dining room. An initial purchase of $2,500 for books for the library was made in 1870 by President Welch. The library was moved to Morrill Hall in 1896 and to the Central Building (now Beardshear Hall) in 1913. In 1925, the new library building was completed to house the library's 115,000 volumes under one roof. The new facility was not large enough to allow for adequate expansion and was outgrown within five years. The first addition to the library was completed in 1961, with a second addition completed in 1969 and a third addition was completed in 1983. In 1984, the Iowa State University Library was officially dedicated as the W. Robert and Ellen Sorge Parks Library.