UST Libraries News

Just walking towards the leather room can cause me to become sleepy. Once while I was taking a nap there a tour group came through. Being in that area between awake and asleep I decided to ignore them, but the tour guide took it upon himself to point out that the leather room was great for napping while pointing at me. Yes, come to St. Thomas to sleep!

I am forever grateful for the foundation and inspiration provided by the OSF *librarians* to pursue a career in librarianship. I so wish I could be there for the October 29 celebration. Congratulations on 50 great years!

My time outside of the classroom at St. Thomas was pretty evenly split between my dorm room and the library! Work study in 'Circulation' and 'Reserves' and the usual homework load kept me coming back day after day. I learned so much within the walls of the O'Shaughnessy Library - not only from its books, but from its amazing librarians! I am forever grateful to Karin Walczak, Ginny Sullivan, and Jenny Kallas for the many "life's lessons" beyond the tomes. And thanks to the guards who never officially 'caught' us studying quietly in the old attic. Fun times, fun memories! Congratulations to the O'Shaughnessy-Frey Library on 50 years as the true heart of the St. Thomas campus . . .

This poem was composed on the quiet, 4th floor of the O'Shaughness Library, 1991 (published in the 1992 Summit Avenue Express):

Upon Looking out from a Library Window

Blue moon shadows of the midnight howling
Off the brushly budded branches of a whispering oak
Arouse my senses.
Down below, from a room with a view,
Big, pink, stationary dots from a streetlamp standing
Illuminate the darkness; and stare...
The frosty mist of a lingering fog hangs, and rests
Upon the reflecting stone crossblocks.
Only the occasional red brights of scurrying vehicles
Show signs of life.

I am mesmerized
Then, as if by magic,
The deep purple, trancelike hues
Of the foreboding eve--vanish
(As if stolen by a black masked culprit of the night).
My captivation is interrupted and dulled.
Book lay before me--unimportant amongst the stateliness
Of such an omnious scene.
What is one to think? To dream?

Hi Julie. Just wanted to share a story from "way back when" (the class of 1991) regarding the O'Shaughnessy library.

I have fond memories of myself, and fellow classmates going to the "Leather Room" (as we called it back then) to read our classic Dickens novels and St. Thomas Aquinas philosophy. This room, filled with leather couches and surrounded by stain glass windows, was a popular spot for reading, napping and immersing oneself in a good book. If the couch was taken, your heart would sink and one would then resolve to try the "quiet, 4th floor."

But if a couch was available in the "Leather Room," one could cozy up in the leather chairs and swear to ourselves that we would not doze off! Regardless of the assignment put before us, the temptation to doze was unavoidable in the Leather Room. Surrounded by supple rich leather, magnificent stain glass windows, and utter peacefulness, the book would fall from one's hands and snoring would begin.

The fourth floor was another popular "quiet and serious study floors." There was a collection of antiquarian art books that I would peruse through for "a change in scenery."

It's my understanding these rare books are now under lock and key. We had a wealth of knowledge at our disposal back then, but our youth and inexperience did not always appreciate such treasures.

I also wrote a published poem titled, "Upon Looking out a Library Window" on the 4th floor. See Summit Avenue Express edition 1991 (author, Holly Zgutowicz). Taken from a line of the poem "...what is one to think, to dream?"

O'Shaughnessy Library is a social, magical, sacred and unique place on campus where dreams flourish.

THANK YOU BENEFACTORS!
--
Holly Stene

Every artist was first an amateur.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

I attended St. Thomas during the years 1960 - 1964 and was a 4-year letterman drafted out of Mechanic Arts. In addition to setting the team scoring record in 1963, I spent lots of time in the upper stacks of the library where it was quiet. I'd spread out my work on the tables and made it through as a business and math major with the help of the library. My downfall was the first floor comfort room off to the side - I'd fall asleep there - didn't want to do that because I had to study. I am president and CEO of corporation and once used the help of the library for marketing my product. I worked as an air traffic controller. I have been back in the Twin Cities area for the past seven years, am part of the President's Club, and am mentor for two Tommies.

When I came to St. Thomas in the fall of '59 the new library was not quite open, it opened at Thanksgiving time that year. I remember my undergraduate advisor, Fr. Schuler, who emphasized to me that for every hour spent in class, you should put in two hours of study. I spent lots of hours studying in the library and in my sophomore American history class, Robert Fogarty assigned a tremendous amount of reading and I used the Reserved Reading heavily. I remember taking classes in the library - English Comp in the northeast corner of the basement; and I took Latin on the third floor in the northwest corner of the library. Since then I spent a number of years in Winona as the College Librarian. I worked with a substitute librarian at Winona State who later went to work at St. Thomas - Cindy Badilla-Melendez - please tell her, "Buenos Dias, Cindy!"

I am a retired librarian, a 1950 graduate of St. Thomas College. I did my studies alongside many fellow WWII vets, all of us using the blessed GI Bill to do so. The St. Thomas Library collection being formed in those years was housed in the current Administration Building and the College Librarian was David Roy Watkins.

David was helpful in getting me a part-time job while also studying, a job not in his Library but in the St. Thomas Military Academy Library, at that time under the directorship of the altogether marvelous Clara Glenn. Together these two, Clara and David, got me interested in librarianship as a career. Roy also guided my fellow student Donald J.
Barrett into a career as librarian at the U. S. Air Force Academy Library in Colorado Springs. Don is retired. There were two others about whom I have little or no information. One, Paul D. Berrisford, is deceased

Dave left St. Thomas to work with the Reference Section of the Library at the University of Minnesota, then later had positions with the Harvard Library and one other of the prestigious Eastern schools (Brandeis?). He served on the governing boards of several national library associations.

I know that Clara has died and believe Dave has also. Would it be appropriate to add some kind of note honoring David for his early work with the young years of your library?

I retired from the University of California in 1993. I spent 34 years building a special collection of materials (Water Resources Center
Archives) dealing with water resources research and development in California and the arid West, a research library that continues.

Thanks to the St. Thomas library, I found the love of my life. I literally met my husband, a Tommie, in the library when I was a St. Kate's student in the mid-'70s. Thereafter we spent nearly every week night of our college years in the library's basement study room called "The Smoker" (you could study, visit and smoke in that room even after the rest of the library closed for the night). The three-year courtship yielded good grades and a strong marriage -- but also a nasty tobacco habit that took decades to break. Happy to report that I've kept the husband and ditched the cigarettes.

In Spring, 2009, the Camino de Santiago speaker came and did a presentation. It was amazing to hear the interpretation of art.

Friends -

I remember many a night from 1980 to 1984 studying at the library. I especially liked "hanging out" with friends in what was then, the legendary room "1A" - that room was a hang-out haven for many, many years. My mom, God rest her soul, was a fixture at the circulation desk and was able to help find things on so many occasions. I am always comforted when I visit "Karin's corner" on the 4th floor - a place of reflection dedicated to her memory that always touches me deeply whenever I visit. Many congrats to the library's 50th -- it is truly the heart and soul of a superb education at St. Thomas.

This goes back maybe 15 years ago. Before we had the online Bulletin Today (which is where I read that you are collecting library memories) we had a printed-on-real-paper weekly Bulletin.

In most issues we had room for a few photographs, and some of the most popular (or most commented on) were shots of several stuffed squirrels we posed throughout campus (except in the chapel and anywhere involving food).

We included pictures of squirrels sleeping next to students in the leather room, reading books at library study tables, and peeking out of books in the stacks.

The best library squirrel picture, though, was one that promoted a new copying machine. The picture showed one of the squirrels pushing the "copy" button, another squirrel sprawled out on the glass on top of the copier, and one particularly flat squirrel shooting out the bottom of the machine.

It was one of the few times we were able to use the flat stuffed squirrel. It didn't look quite right in any of the other pictures.

I started in the library in January (1966) of my freshman year as a Page – pulling books from the closed stacks – working for Mrs Meredith Kent, the Circulation Librarian, with Fr. Clyde Eddy as the Library Director. Think that the pay was 50 or 60 cents/hour. Stayed one summer (after my freshman or sophomore year) to work there full time. Spent most of my time cataloging government documents – including a lot in geology - for Mrs. Mary Weigle and Mrs Ryan; and also cataloged odd books that the LC card set didn’t include. Started classes at St. Kate’s as a minor in Library Science in junior year, and that year or senior year I was entrusted as the first student to man the reference desk in the evenings without a professional librarian there – using what I had learned at St. Kate’s classes.

After getting my B.A. in May 1969, took the summer off to hitch-hike through Europe for 9 weeks, then came back as Circulation Librarian for a year ($6,100/year). Fr. Tony Lachner, Library Director (at the time) was a concelebrant at my wedding) and then I went out West and got my MSLS from the U of Southern California – living about 15 months in sunny southern California (West Covina).

Then back to St. Thomas and O’Shaughnessy Library initially as Reference Librarian ($7,000 first year) then eventually Head of Reader Services (which combined Reference and Circulation). Became interested in bibliographic instruction, and started the Pathfinders series of short guides to various fields that I’ve seen at the Library not long ago.

Wanted to do more serious evaluation of bibliographic instruction programs and other library services than we had been doing, so decided to take some research and evaluation courses at the U of M to enable myself to do so. Then in 1977, I left St Thomas to be a full time student and research assistant it the U.

As a senior here at St. Thomas I consider myself a permanent resident of OSF. Luckily the building in which I spend over 30 hours per week is one of the most beautiful on campus, and even in the city of St. Paul. I have been fortunate enough to study on several campuses in the Twin Cities and one in Nantes, France in working toward my undergraduate degree. Of all libraries in which I have studied, OSF surpasses them all in beauty, content, and history.

During my freshman year (2008-2009) I would have study groups in the small group rooms. It was great to study for hours and not know what was going on outside of the door.

As a business major at UST I remember my library basement experiences the most. This is where I went to socialize with my friends and peers - and with my brother, who is two years older, also studying at St. Thomas as a bio-chem major, he could be found on the upper, "quiet" floors. As it was, we always knew where to find each other should we need to. It became the running joke within my family as the same story was true for my father and his sister. As graduates of St. Thomas the library offered us a place to socialize and a place to study. This is the experience we will continue to talk about and remember throughout the years. Thanks St. Thomas for bringing us all closer together!!!

My favorite memory of the OSF Library is during my senior year - doing more socializing than studying, of course! I have met some incredibly brilliant and dedicated students in this place! Yummiest memory - cookies! It provided a perfect opporutnity to check in with people, get a sugar high, and knock out a few more problems! A Harry Potter style dance better be in the near future! Thanx!