New Corvallis Public Library building soon after construction, 1931. This 5,200 square foot building was designed by renowned architect Pietro Belluschi and was dedicated in 1932.
Lucy M. Lewis was the University Librarian from 1920-1945. During her 25 years, Lewis established the Friends of the Library and helped Oregon State College become the second land grant institution in the nation. The library's classification system was changed from Dewey Decimal to Library of Congress.
Picture shows ornamental metal work in the south entrance of the library. The metal work was done by J. C. Garman. The building was later renamed to Kidder.
Bessie Gyneth Tressler was a librarian from 1946 to 1969. She was born in 1903 in Emporia, Kansas. She earned her Bachelor of Arts at the College of Emporia in 1926, where she studied music. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Library Science from the University of Illinois in 1930, and attended further study at the University of Chicago. Before coming to OSC, she had sixteen years of experience in library work, having been a cataloger and assistant librarian in several different libraries. She was hired as an Order Assistant at $2,400 per year. Since most of her training was in cataloging, her supervisors planned to transfer her to the Catalog Department as soon as there was an opening. She became an assistant professor in 1948, an associate professor in 1953, and became the Head Order Librarian in 1965. In 1967, she was appointed as the Head of Acquisitions Department. She took sabbatical leave from January-April of 1957, which she used to explore college and university libraries throughout New York City, Boston, and Philadelphia, in addition to visiting agents, publishers, out-of-print dealers ad magazine agents in New York City and Boston. She was earning $13,020 at time of her retirement in 1969. She was given Emeritus status, after spending 23 years at OSC, for her contributions to the library. She was a member of the American Library Association and the American Association of University Women.
Wilda Thompson was a Serials Division library assistant, who supervised mending and binding from 1941 to 1945. She was born in 1912 in Camp Murray, Fort Lewis, Washington. She graduated from Lincoln High School in Tacoma. Her father was a former state adjutant general. She earned her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Washington in 1933, in the field of French language and literature, with additional study in English and European literature, history, and sociology. Two years later, she returned to attain her Bachelor of Arts in Librarianship in 1935. Before coming to OSC, she worked as a catalog assistant at the University of Idaho Library for four years. She also was a volunteer librarian at Clover Park Junior High School, where she assisted with organizing the school library and training student assistants. She was hired at $1,500 per year in 1941. During childhood, Thompson endured a severe case of diphtheria, which left her with unusually thickened vocal chords. This meant that she could only exhale a small amount of a air with each breath, limiting her to a moderate range of physical activity. She could not take part in work that necessitated much physical activity, such as running up and down stairs stacking books. She did not find this condition especially limiting in her career. Her former colleagues recommended her highly and emphasized that this physical condition did not interfere with her work. She resigned in 1945 to take a position at the University of Washington Library. In 1942, she passed after a brief illness at the age of 39. She was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, the American Library Association, and the Pacific Northwest LIbrary Association, among others.