Lean on the LIBRARY

In 1969, the Vernon R. Alden Library opened, replacing Chubb Hall as the location of the Ohio University’s library. As a surprise gesture, the library was named after Vernon R. Alden, an OU president that served from 1962 to 1969. A bust of Alden and his wife, Marion, can be seen on the second floor of the library near the elevators, and a large painting of him hangs on the fourth floor. Through the years, Alden Library has had to adapt to new technological changes and student needs, and it has introduced many different services for students.

From textbooks to laptops, the library has many resources that students may not know about. Ryan Spellman, the service desk coordinator at the library, remarks on the available resources that go unnoticed by students.

“There's just so much and that's one of the things that we struggle with is,

Book it to Alden for these resources.

BY KIRSTEN ABBEY | DESIGN BY DREW FOLLMER

second-floor service desk and use them in the building.”

Another way students can access course material is through OhioLINK, an outreach program that borrows books from other university libraries. For things found in public libraries, students can utilize Ohio Search. For anything available in libraries around the world, an interlibrary loan is the different preferences,” Spellman says. “I think just having power available and spaces that are noisy and quiet and kind of mid-grade and trying to help people like to maintain those kinds of ambient environments for them.”

One space, in particular, is frequented by students more than most. On the second floor of Alden, Café BiblioTech can be found. A spot for those looking to avoid the hustle and bustle of Front Room, Café BiblioTech offers the volume of a library but offers the social atmosphere of a coffee shop.

Theo Bookwalter, a senior studying English, is a location coordinator for the campus cafes. He mentions that many people do not realize Café BiblioTech is there.

‘How do we raise awareness about what we have without overloading people?’” Spellman says.

He mentions countless different ways that the library tries to assist students without access to certain things, such as textbooks.

“We have a lot of textbooks,” Spellman says. “Usually, at the professor's request, they are put on course reserve here, so students don't have to pay for them. And students can come in and check them out from the correct choice. Spellman says they get countless items from the Library of Congress upon request.

The library also extends its patrons a human touch. Manning the front desks on both the second and fourth floors, students, workers and staff members are available for assistance.

“Our service desks are a really helpful resource,” Spellman says. “And it’s something I always try to tell people. If we ever give a talk to a freshman group, or somebody that’s doing BSO or something. They can come to us with questions that aren't even library questions, and we'll usually find where to guide them if we don't know the answer.”

Ultimately, one of the most important aspects of the library is providing students with a comfortable place to study, to chat or even to sleep.

“I feel [like] we work really hard to keep the spaces diverse in ways to meet

“Especially if you're unfamiliar with the library, for incoming freshmen, I think it's not so accessible and easily found,” Bookwalter says. “But once you get more familiar with that, for the second floor of the library, I think you'll spot it, and you'll know where it's at. And you'll hear it for sure. Because people are in there chatting.”

Café BiblioTech also offers students a location that closes later than all other campus cafes. On weekdays, the cafe does not close until 11 p.m.

“Our hours are based on the library's hours,” Bookwalter says. “There's this small window between when we close and [when] the library closes.”

Another lesser-known resource located in Alden Library is the Robert E. and Jean R. Mahn Center for Archives and Special Collections. Nestled in the corner of the fifth floor, the Mahn Center is home to a team of dedicated archivists. Each has their own specialty, but all of them are ready to help students who need it. Their collections range from 13th century bibles to World War II helmets.

“There’s about 45,000 volumes in the collection,” Miriam Intrator, the rare books librarian, says. “Some of the areas of specialization include 18th through early 20th century British and American literature. Some history of science, juvenile literature, historical American textbooks, history of Ohio and then anything to do with techniques and processes of manuscript and bookmaking over time.”

For students who are researching social issues of the past, these are invaluable source materials made available through the Mahn Center.

“We intentionally collect artists’ books that address subjects and topic areas that are important to all of us today but that you don’t so easily find in the historical materials,” Intrator says. “Issues around identity, sexuality, environmental concerns, political movements, social justice and so on.”

They also have interesting examples of people in the past practicing activities that people do today. Photo Archivist Laura Smith has a collection of negatives from a man who lived in Athens during the 1980s. Smith says that the photographer “had several images of what he called ‘ego slides’ which are, essentially, what we call today, selfies.”

The variety of the collections managed by the archivists is seemingly endless. There are some challenges to having such a large compilation of resources. Bill Kimok, university archivist and records manager, says that “the hard part about being in university archives is we’re still growing. History still goes on and we’re still processing stuff from a hundred years ago.”

Regardless of the difficulties, the university archives are open to students

Key Alden Floors

doing work in any discipline. The archivists encourage people to come and visit.

The Mahn Center is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to noon and then 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

“I think we want more usage,” Intrator says. “We always want more people using the collections. We get a lot of classes, and certainly some students pursuing their own research. We still hear all the time about Mahn Center collections, ‘Oh we had no idea this existed.’ People have a very specific idea of what they think archives and, rare books are and they’re surprised by the variety and how broad the scope actually is.” b