Dora May Himmelsbach Costello was a reference assistant at the Oregon State College library off and on from 1923 to 1925, then from 1938 to 1943, and from 1945 to 1948. Her annual salary was $1,920. She was twenty-nine years old when she came to work at OSC in 1923. She had previously worked as an English instructor at an Idaho high school. She received her Bachelor of Education in 1921, and her Bachelor of Library Science in 1923 from the University of Washington. She was a member of the American Library Association and the Pacific Northwest Library Association. From 1926 to 1937, she worked as a library assistant at Louisiana State University, California State University, and at Yakima Public Library. She came back to work at Oregon State College in 1938 because she wanted a permanent position. From 1943 to 1945, she took a leave of absence for military service to join the Women’s Army Corps. At this time, OSC’s library was already suffering from staff shortages due to the war, but her leave was granted. She resigned in 1948. She was born in 1894, in Crookston, Minnesota.
Florence Euren was a librarian at Oregon State College from 1946 to 1972. Euren was born in 1906, in Moorhead, Minnesota. She received her Bachelor of Science in Education from the State Teachers College, and received her Bachelor of Science in Library Science from the University of Minnesota. She began as an assistant circulation librarian in 1946 with an annual salary of $2,620. She left in 1949 to accept a job as a Bookmobile Librarian in Washington. She came back in 1957 as a librarian with an annual pay of $5,000. She retired in 1972.
Lucia Haley was an assistant librarian at Oregon State from 1921 to 1952. Haley was born in 1887, in Fryeburg, Maine. She received her Bachelor of Arts (A.B.) degree in 1911 from the University of Washington, and a Bachelor of Liberal Studies (B.L.S.) from Pratt Institute. Before coming to work at Oregon State, Haley was a cataloger for the Seattle Public Library, and for the Oregon State Library, and as a librarian for the University of Montana. She was also an active member in the Pacific Northwest Library Association. Haley took sabbatical leave in 1929 in order to travel to other libraries across the United States and Europe to learn how to improve Oregon State’s library. She also used this time to improve her French and German so she could translate periodical literature. In 1937, Haley attended a summer session at the University of California to learn Russian. Haley had noticed a growing trend in materials coming into the library from the Soviet Union that were in Russian, where they had previously been written in English, German, or French. Haley understood the importance of being able to translate these documents, especially Soviet research in soils, horticulture, and farm crops, for Oregon State, so she took it upon herself to learn Russian. She retired in 1952, after 31 years of service. OSC awarded her with emeritus status upon her retirement for her contributions to the college. She passed away in 1975.
