Planning is really coming together for the dedication of the Thomas S. and Harvey D. Wilmeth Active Learning Center (WALC) on Homecoming Weekend, September 22-23. I’m looking so forward to this day where we get to celebrate this magnificent facility — a place where the Purdue Libraries will once again represent the highest achievement in library service, resources, research and teaching — and honor those who provided the funding to make this project happen.

Early on, Dean Mullins established a mission for this event that welcomed the campus community as a whole. There are many facets to the day that are meant to speak to a variety of stakeholders: our donors, Purdue faculty and students, the communities of West Lafayette and Lafayette, our colleagues in peer libraries, the state of Indiana and our own faculty and staff. Our goal is to not only welcome everyone to the WALC on this day, but invite them into the mission of what we do — our passion for service to our users and research and teaching that expands the reach of the value we bring to our campus community and the library sector.

It has been a long process between the concept of a facility that merged learning spaces with library resources and services to the innovative, dazzling building that will be dedicated on September 22. This project has inspired alumni and friends of the university to give generously. Even though hundreds of gifts have been made in support of the WALC, 35 major gifts raised $15.5M of the $16M fundraising goal. That is hard evidence that the strategy worked to help people not only understand but invest in our library. When the building was just a drawing, it was the work done by Libraries faculty and staff that convinced donors this plan was not only possible but compelling, powerful and would be one more way that Purdue would be number one. We hope you will all feel like honored guests at the dedication Homecoming Weekend and look forward to sharing the pride in a job well done and the promise of an exciting future.

This is my sixteenth article for INSIDe, and also my last! After eight years at Purdue, I am relocating to Richmond, Virginia to be closer to my family. I plan to job-hunt as well as continue to research and write once we (my wonderful husband, John and my adorable Yorkie, Carmel) are settled there.

It has been such a great honor to be a professor here, to be the first holder of the W. Wayne Booker Chair in Information Literacy, and your interim Associate Dean for Academic Affairs! I am proud to have been with you during the extraordinary strides we made, most recently culminating in the ACRL excellence award and the imminent opening of the WALC. You are an amazing group of people!

When I started here, some very good information literacy work was happening, but we did not have a Purdue core curriculum, and so information literacy was not an expectation of every student. We did not have a strategic plan that included information literacy as a “pillar.” We did not have a Learning Council, an information literacy specialist, instructional designers in the Libraries, or GIS specialists. We did not have an Information Literacy Research Symposia or an Information Literacy Handbook Series. Now, these things are in place due to the efforts of many of you. The University recognizes the critical role that libraries have in teaching our students and in providing much-needed spaces for learning outside the classroom.

During the next “chapter” for the Libraries, you will be again forging a new path for our profession by increasing that teaching role even more and developing model learning spaces. I have no doubt that you all will meet any challenges that arise and that you will continue to keep the Purdue Libraries in the forefront among academic libraries. I wish you much success, and I thank you for the opportunities I have had here!

Comments from Sharon's coworkers

"We could not have asked for a more dynamic and committed individual as the inaugural W. Wayne Booker Chair in Information Literacy. When we received the gift from Wayne Booker in 2005, it was understood it was to insure there would be a Libraries faculty member who would be an advocate for and an avid researcher in information literacy. When we undertook the search, we concluded we had found that person in Dr. Sharon Weiner. She has affirmed, through her work during the past eight years, that initial assessment of her potential was correct." — Jim Mullins

"I was quite impressed with Sharon’s background when she was selected as the inaugural W. Wayne Booker Chair in Information Literacy, and became even more impressed with the programming she brought to the Libraries, and the programs she helped us get involved in, both within the University and the broader library community. She has been our great champion in promoting all aspects of information literacy, from competencies to frameworks, from financial to health to data. Recently I have become even more “impresseder” (“impressedest”?) at the finesse and astuteness at which she has taken up the reins as Interim Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. But I think most of al,l I have come to appreciate Sharon’s calm demeanor in the way she leads — she listens more than she talks, but she doesn’t hesitate to lead, to call for praise when we succeed, and not hesitate to call out problems when they affect the Libraries. Her call for working harder on workplace communication underscores how much she cares about the Libraries as whole, and I am grateful to have worked side-by-side with her. I hope her calm demeanor has rubbed off on me (and I knew a few people who hope that as well)." — Scott Brandt

"I’d like to communicate that Sharon was a wonderful advisor and advocate for me, in whatever role she took on at the moment. She always had my best interest at heart, and that of the library. I feel very lucky to have had the chance to work with her." — Michael Flierl

"I have enjoyed working with Sharon on topics, suggestions and input for INSIDe. She was always prompt with her submissions — submitting them well in advance of the deadline — and routinely providing links and updates about training opportunities for staff. I am so thankful for her support and promotion of the newsletter. I will miss her smile and positive attitude. Thank you Sharon for your dedication to Purdue Libraries and the University." — Teresa Brown

Friends, I can’t thank you enough for allowing me to play a small role over the past three and a half years in the Purdue University Libraries. It has been an absolute pleasure to work alongside all of you and support the fantastic and innovative projects that you’ve envisioned over the years. I’ve learned a tremendous amount from my job here and from all of you. I’m looking forward to being closer to family and old friends, but it will be very difficult to move on from a position and work family I’ve held so dear. I really, truly appreciate all of you. I can’t wait to follow Purdue Libraries in the future via our renewed social media presence and keep up with all of the great things you’re doing. And who knows … if my time in Ohio doesn’t pan out, perhaps I’ll find my way back to supporting you all again in the future! I’ve told RaeLynn to keep my seat warm … Please keep in touch and thank you!

"To build up the future, you have to know the past." — Otto Frank

Over the next few months as Purdue University Libraries relocates six libraries into the Wilmeth Active Learning Center (WALC), INSIDe will feature a brief history about each library.

A LOOK BACK AT THE PHARMACY, NURSING and HEALTH SCIENCES LIBRARY

Excerpted from Inside Scoop, March 15, 1997

During the early years of the University, most of the schools and departments maintained their own collections even though the Main Library was established in 1874. The School of Pharmacy (established in 1884) was no exception; for several years the newer and most important books were loaned to the pharmacy faculty and kept by them in their offices or laboratories. Students who wanted to borrow books could do so at the discretion of a particular professor. In 1904, expenditures for books, periodicals, and binding totaled $2120.00, of which the School of Pharmacy received $25.00. By 1911, most of the books once kept by the pharmacy faculty were moved to the Main Library and “properly cataloged.” A duplicate shelf-list of the “best books on the subject” was kept for the pharmacy faculty in the School’s main office. In 1927, the “unrecognized” departmental libraries’ collections totaled 6,607. The collection supporting the School of Pharmacy was estimated at 498 volumes, roughly 8% of the total book collection.

In 1930, the School of Pharmacy moved into its own building. That building is still in use; the section of Schleman Hall on Stadium Mall that faces Forney Hall of Chemical Engineering is the old Pharmacy Building. A large number of books was transferred from the General (Main) Library to the new Pharmacy Library on the first floor of the building across the hall from the Apothecary. These books, plus volumes from the pharmacy labs and offices, made up a collection of about 1,500 volumes. If you read Purdue Pharmacy: The First Century by Robert B. Eckles, he states the collection was about 3,000 volumes, probably including a lot of books the professors never gave back to the General Library in 1922.

The building currently used by most of the departments within the School of Pharmacy was dedicated on November 13-14, 1970. (The building was named the Robert Heine Pharmacy Building in 1985 for a Purdue Alumnus.) The 145,000 square foot building cost $6.8 million to build and included space for dozens of laboratories and offices, as well as two lecture halls, special purpose rooms and a library. At the time it opened, the Pharmacy Library had 21,000 volumes with an estimated capacity of 38,000 volumes. There were seats for 102 patrons, thirty-two study carrels, several large tables, a separate area reserved for the indexes, and a reading room for current periodicals. The library was carpeted, a first at Purdue. “Beauty, as well as utility, was considered in the library design,” reads a statement in one of the commemorative pamphlets. Visitors were asked to note the teak finish of the custom-built bookcases and the attractive staircase and chandeliers. Of course, the predominant color scheme was indicative of the era … orange and acid green!

Most visitors over the years probably never noticed the ceiling, but it was also a creation of the pre-EPA or pre-OSHA era … asbestos fibers embedded in plaster, a practical fire-retardant, but major health hazard twenty-five years later as the plaster and asbestos began drifting down. During the summer of 1996, the entire contents of the library were boxed up and placed in storage while the library received a new ceiling, upgraded lighting, new wall covering and paint and new carpet. During a phonathon the first week in May, while library staff were filling up 1,563 boxes, the alumni pledged over $46,000 that was used for the purchase of new study carrels, computer tables, chairs, old chairs refurbished and computer workstations. The renovation resulted in seating for about seventy-five users. The collection size was approximately 26,000 volumes with growth space for the first time in years.

Although there has been a library in the School of Pharmacy since 1930, there have only been three, actually “three-and-a-half”, head librarians during that time period. Miss Bernice Dunton was the first librarian, beginning her career at Purdue in 1930 and retiring in 1956. Ms. Theodora (“Teddy”) Andrews began her Purdue career as a clerical in 1945. After completing her MLS in 1955, she was appointed the Pharmacy Assistant Reference Librarian in January 1956, and eventually named Pharmacy Librarian later that year. In 1979, Teddy became the Pharmacy, Nursing and Health Sciences Librarian when the newly formed School of Nursing (formerly a department in the School of Technology) and the School of Health Sciences were brought under the administration of the Dean of the School of Pharmacy and the library collections supporting those programs were moved to the Pharmacy Building. She resigned her position as head of the library in December 1990, but remained on the faculty as bibliographer to Varro E. Tyler, former dean of the School of Pharmacy, until her retirement in June 1992. Sherry Martino was the professional librarian during the last few years when Ms. Andrews was head. The “half” head librarian was Nancy Hewison who was Interim Pharmacy, Nursing, and Health Sciences Librarian from January 1991 to September 1991.

Vicki Killion, the third Pharmacy, Nursing and Health Sciences librarian, came to Purdue in September 1991 from the University of Cincinnati Health Sciences Library. She remained the PNHS Librarian when in 2004, she also became head of the Life Sciences Library. In 2005, the Veterinary Medical Library was added to her responsibilities and the Health and Life Sciences Division was formed under her direction. When she arrived in 1991, Cheryl Oliver, circulation/reserves clerk, and Cindy Clinton, serials/binding clerk, had been working with Ms. Andrews and Nancy Hewison for over two years. Dan Rotello was a student assistant at that time. Although Cindy was followed by Kelly Stingle, Allen Bol, Tiffany Eakin and now Liz Lukens, Cheryl remained in the PNHS Library until February 2017.

What is happening to the space occupied by the PNHS Library? The College of Pharmacy is planning to maintain the entry level as student space with renovations scheduled for the summer of 2018. The balcony will be converted to office space for the college development group and a conference room. While it is the end of an era, as one of the pharmacy emeritus professors recently said, it is gratifying to know that student space is the main focus.

Julia Smith
Digital Media Producer

I have just began as the Digital Media Producer for the Purdue Libraries Strategic Communication department. I will be assisting the director, Teresa Koltzenburg, to develop publicity campaigns, social media engagement, video production and content marketing efforts within Purdue Libraries. I am looking forward to diving right in to the many exciting projects! As a Ph.D. candidate in English in Theory and Cultural Studies, I am immersed in academic and scholarly writing, research, and critical thinking, and as a nerdy English major I am a huge fan of libraries. Before this, I was a graduate instructor for the Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies Department, but over the last eight years I have been an instructor of both English and Film Studies courses at New Mexico State University and Purdue.

Outside of feverishly working on my dissertation, I still try to embroider regularly, I love to watch and talk about movies with friends, and I also like to meet new people, so please come visit if you haven’t met me! I am in STEW 264 and you can reach me via email at smit1822@purdue.edu or by phone at 49-41042.

HSSE Media Collection

Keep cool this summer by checking out our DVD collection. On the first floor of the HSSE Library, we currently have media titles on display from our collection that highlight Indiana towns. The DVDs can be found on the second floor of the library. More information about our media collection can be found at http://guides.lib.purdue.edu/c.php?g=417966.

Photo and display by Patrick Whalen