Editor’s note: This article was originally published by the Reveille on Friday, October 23, 1959. The original can be found here.
Week of Activity Is Climaxed Today
Climaxing a week of activity, LSU today continues its Centennial year celebration with the new, $3,500,000 Library dedication which distinguished educators and library officials representing 63 colleges and universities are scheduled to attend.
Classes are being dismissed between 9 and 11 a.m. so that students may attend the ceremony. At 9:15 a.m. an academic convocation will be held commemorating LSU’s 100th anniversary.
Dr. Benjamin E. Powell, librarian at Duke University and president of the America Library Assn., will give the principal address entitled “The Academic Library.”
Has Distinguished Record
Powell has a distinguished record in library service. He has been a librarian at Duke since 1946 where he previously was chief of the circulation ad reference departments. He was also librarian at the University of Missouri.
He is a member of many professional and social organizations among them the Association of College and Reference Libraries, American Association of University Professors, Southeastern Library Assn., Southern Historical Assn. and the Rotary Club.
Miss Essae Martha Culver, Louisiana State Librarian, will become the first woman to receive a honorary doctorate from LSU when she is awarded the doctor of letters degree at the convocation.
Miss Culver is widely recognized in library circles for her services to the state and LSU. She first came to LSU from California in 1925 to direct a demonstration program in state library service.
The Faculty Senate met on Nov. 16 to hold Faculty Adjudication Committee elections and discuss the disposal of certain library books.
Visitors from many states and foreign countries have come to study her demonstration method of extending library service in Louisiana.
Miss Culver was also the first woman to receive an honorary doctorate from Pomona College in California when she was honored in 1954. She is a member of many organizations and is one of seven women to serve as president of the American Library Assn.
Cangelosi to Make Presentation
Theo F. Cangelosi, chairman of the LSU Board of Supervisors, will make the presentation of the Library. Director of LSU libraries, Dr. Sidney B. Smith, will make the acceptance and dedicate the building.
President Troy H. Middleton will introduce officials. Music will be provided by the LSU band, under the direction of Thomas N. Tyra.
The invocation will be given by the Rt. Rev. Msgr. Herman P. Lohmann, pastor of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church. Rev. Parks W. Wilson, pastor of the University Presbyterian Church, will deliver the benediction.
Celebrations Opens Monday
The dedication week celebration opened Monday with a Library Personnel Conference, sponsored jointly by the LSU Library School, General Extension Division and Louisiana State Library. Representatives from throughout Louisiana and surrounding states attended the conference.
Mrs. Kathleen Stebbins, personnel director of the Detroit Public Library, was a consultant for the conference.
W.W. McDougall, director of the Louisiana Department of Civil Service, delivered the keynote address, “Personnel: Key to Performance.”
The LSU Library is often disparaged because of its poor conditions, and the Reveille has covered this extensively here, here and here.
Four university presidents participated in a panel discussion on “The Importance of American Higher Education” Thursday. The panel considered the topic from the aspects of meeting the nation’s need for skilled manpower, enlightened citizenry and new knowledge and applications of knowledge in science, engineering, humanities and social sciences.
Panel Members Named
Members of the panel were Dr. Rufus C. Harris, president of Tulane University; Dr. Robert M. Strozier, Florida State University; Dr. William S. Carlson, University of Toledo, and Dr. Logan Wilson, University of Texas. Dr. Author Stanton Adams, president of the American Council on Education, was the moderator of the discussion.
Thursday night a dedication banquet was held. Adams was the principal speaker at the banquet; his topic was “The Heart of the University.”
A meeting of college university librarians Friday and Saturday will be the final event.
Speakers for this meeting will be Dr. Robert H. Muller, assistant director of libraries at the University of Michigan; Dr. Maurice F. Tauber, professor in Columbia University School of Library Services; and Dr. Robert B. Downs, dean of library administration at the University of Illinois.
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