FEBRUARY 22, 1979
THE TWIG
PAGE 3
Library advances from humble beginnings
by Anne Earp
“A library should be not
only ample, airy, and well-
Groundbreaking ceremony
for new library.
Construction begins.
The framework is up.
K
Dr. Carlyle Campbell of
ficially opens the library.
The current iibraiT staff.
Mrs. Quick, Librarian^, aids
student with card cat^g.
; \6ift
**. 4iv>ci
furnished, but it should be
attractive and pleasant, so as
not only to afford eager
students opportunities for
comfortable reading and
study, but to invite the in
different and cultivate in them
a taste for reading and
study.”
Dr. Vann wrote these
words in 1911 when two
classrooms housed the
Meredith library. The library
program has greatly ex
panded since that time. The
beginnings of Carlyle Camp
bell Library, which celebrates
its tenth anniversary this
week, date to a time when the
college was called The Baptist
Female University.
Surveying the Univer
sity’s first year. President
Blasingame pleaded for
books, saying there was “no
library to speak of.” Teachers
supplemented the poor supply
with their own books, acc-
cording to Mary Lynch
Johnson’s History of Meredith
College.
The General Library
rifentioned in the 1902 catalog
referred to the collection of
650 volumes created in 1900. A
classroom, one of the total of
14, on second floor of the main
building housed this minute
library.
“General Library and
Reading Room’’ was the
impressive title given to that
room in 1904. Two student
librarians wprked about nine
hours each day, with a
reliable girl sometimes
keeping order when both the
librarians had classes.
Mr. Kesler, Mr. Sackett, and
Mr. Boomhour, all professors
of natural sciences, were in
charge of ordering books and
general oversight of the new
library. Trustees revested
these curators, along with two
trustees, “to seek in all
legitimate ways to increase
the usefulness of the library.”
For two years, a big ac
count book titled Baptist
Female University Library-
Record held a list of volumes
used. Under Gold Skies, Best
Things From Best Authors,
Woman’s Mission and In
fluence, Give Me Thine Heart,
and Phoebe Skiddy’s Theology
were checked out over and
over.
Favorite magazines in
cluded Atlantic Monthly,
Etude, Saturday Evening
Post, Ladies’ Home Journal,
Everybody’s, MeClurl’s,
Lippincott’s Munsey’s,
Century, Success, and Youth’s
Companion.
Forty-three free
newspapers were obtained by
requesting the editor of the
newspaper in the home town
or county where each student
lived to send a complimentary
subscription.
Mr. and Mrs. W.P.
Johnson bequeathed their
library to the College in 1902.
This was an invaluable con
tribution when Meredith’s
library was so new and small.
In 1911 the student body
donated $300.
When the collection had
grown to 2,500 volumes in 1910,
it was moved to two
classrooms with an archway
between them and the books
were reclassified according to
the Dewey Decimal System.
A prim and proper lady
named Miss Margaret
Forgeus, third full-time
librarian, came on the scene
in 1914. Except for two ab
sences due to illness in her
family, she was at Meredith
until 1954. Each time she
resigned instead of taking
leaves of absence, so she was
elected to her position three
times.
About the same time Miss
Forgeus began her jon&
employment, a third rotoiti
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directly across the hall from
the others came into use.
Since books reserved for
upper classmen were kept
there, juniors and seniors
sometimes abused their
freedom.
Meredith College was
moved into Raleigh during
Christmas vacation of 1925-26,
one of the coldest in recorded
history and on the new
campus the library was on the
second floor of the ad
ministration building. Boxes
were made the length of the
shelves so the books could
travel in undisturbed order.
The dainty Miss Forgeus first
followed her library by street
car and bus, but she was soon
on the truck seat beside the
driver.
Fund-raising campaigns
for a new library begin in 1944.
Through 1960 and 1961, Dr.
Campbell pointed out to the
executive committee “the
urgent and increasing need
for a new library.”
After a gift of $50,000 from
the Mary Reynolds Babcock
Foundation in 1962, the
trustees voted unanimously to
build the library and to name
it in honor of Dr. Carlyle
Campbell. Construction began
after the ground-breaking in
1967, and the building was
completed in 1%9. It was
dedicated on Founders’ Day,
1969.
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