By Larry Landis, OSU Head Archivist

Since its designation as Oregon's land grant institution in 1868, Oregon State University's libraries have played a significant role in fulfilling the university's mission. During the past 134 years, the libraries' collections have grown and changed in character, from a few volumes to 1.3 million volumes today plus access to countless resources in digital form. Our physical infrastructure also has changed significantly from a closet to the current 343,035 square-foot Valley Library, two branches, and a presence at the Cascades Campus in Bend. But the libraries' role within the university has remained constant to provide users with services and access to information. This article originally appeared in The Messenger, the Oregon State University Libraries' magazine.

When tiny Corvallis College was designated by the Oregon Legislative Assembly as the state's land-grant institution in October 1868, its facilities consisted of a modest frame building in downtown Corvallis that served all of the college's academic and administrative needs. It likely had a small collection of books (the earliest college catalogs included a solicitation of donations to the Library), but there is no mention of a formal library through the 1870s. Lack of funds at the chronically impoverished college precluded the purchase of many books.

The year 1880 marks the true beginning of the college's library. On May 26, Leo Stock, a student who was librarian for the college's Adelphian Literary Society, took possession of 388 books and 217 miscellaneous volumes that had been the collection of the defunct Corvallis Library Association. The society's new collection became a quasi-library for the college, as it was made available for use by college students and faculty. The collection was housed in a closet in the college building. The Adelphian Literary Society supplemented the collection with books purchased from membership dues. In 1889, the society transferred ownership of its library to the college.

Desiring to have a good library of Standard works for the College use, the college's board of regents appropriated $800 in early 1891 for cataloging the books of the old Adelphian Society now in the College book case. The books were to be "put in boxes and stored in the basement of the building until some definite arrangement about them is effected" (letter to President B. L. Arnold from board secretary Wallis Nash, 5 January 1891). Possibly as a result of the 1891 appropriation by the board of regents, the college published the first comprehensive listing of books in its library in 1893. The "Catalogue of the College and Station Libraries of the Oregon State Agricultural College" listed a total of 1,950 volumes held by the college. During the 1890s, donations of books continued to be an important means of expanding the collection. Donors were acknowledged in several of the college's catalogs.

The building referred to in the board of regents' 1891 letter was the new College Building (later known as the Administration Building and now Benton Hall) completed in 1889 on the college farm land west of downtown. According to a 1923 history of the library by college librarian Lucy M. Lewis, the first home of the library was Room 36, on the third floor of the Administration building, whence all but the most eager pilgrims of knowledge were loath to climb for books. During the 1890s the library collection was moved several times to various locations in Benton Hall - one move purportedly necessitated by the weight of the books causing the floor to sag. Students were hired to look after the library collection and were paid 15 cents an hour. One student held the position for 3 years, during which time he put all of the books on shelving (which had not been done previously) and made trays for a card catalog.

In July 1908 Ida A. Kidder was appointed as Oregon Agricultural College's first professionally trained librarian. Before coming to the Pacific Northwest, Kidder had entered library school at the University of Illinois after her husband's death and received her degree in 1906 at the age of 51. In November 1908 Kidder compiled a report to president William Jasper Kerr on the "present condition" of the college library. Its holdings included 7,180 general and reference books, 5,000 government documents (it was a government depository library), and an estimated 10,000 pamphlets. The reading room (the center room on the second floor of the Administration Building) was 60x40 ft. and could accommodate 108 students. Two other rooms on the second floor held the general collection and bound periodicals, and the government documents.

At OAC Kidder lead a twelve year period of growth unparalleled in the library's history, the library's holdings increased several fold, its staff increased from one position to nine, and to accommodate these increases in books and staff, Kidder planned and oversaw the construction of a new 57,000 square-foot library building. But before the new library building became a reality in 1918, the library continued to make do in the Administration Building (Benton Hall). By 1912 the library occupied the entire second floor, and chairs in the reading room were hard to come by.

Pressured by Kidder and the college community, the OAC Board of Regents successfully lobbied the 1917 Oregon Legislative Assembly for an appropriation of $158,000 for a new library building. Designed by Portland architect John V. Bennes (designer of more than 33 structures on the OSU campus) the building boasted considerable growth space for the library's book collection, a large reading room, library offices, three departments and the college museum. Ultimately named Kidder Hall in 1963 in memory of the librarian who was the driving force behind getting it approved and built, the building was ready for occupancy in the fall of 1918. Because of the wartime labor shortage, faculty of all ranks and students pitched in to move the library collection from the Administration Building to the new building, using a wooden causeway built between the buildings. The last books were moved in on October 30, 1918.

After experiencing health problems later in life, Kidder began using an electric cart (affectionately dubbed the Wickermobile) to get around on campus. Ida Kidder died on February 28, 1920. During Kidder's tenure, the library maintained a balanced general collection of books and developed notable collections in agriculture, home economics, and the history of horticulture. At the time of her death the library was a depository for federal publications, subscribed to several hundred periodicals, received the transactions of several hundred learned and technological societies, and maintained a large reference collection.