History
In an earlier history of our library, we are reminded: ãA history of a college library presupposes a history of the institution to which it belongs. A sketch can be found in the College bulletin of, 1935-36:
"Incarnate Word College is the large realization of a project that was envisioned by the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word in the perspective of a career that offered itself upon their coming to San Antonio in 1869. With all of their limited number and meager financial resources engaged in the pioneer work of hospital, orphanage and other missions during the first twelve years of their activity in a vast territory of Southwest Texas, the founding of a school for the academic and collegiate education of women was necessarily postponed; and the first movement in the enterprise was not effected until July, 1881, when the school was chartered by the State of Texas and empowered to confer academic honors and collegiate degrees. The powers of this charter were confirmed in 1909.ä
The school was established in 1909 at its present location, including some two hundred acres on the George W. Brackenridge Estate at the headwaters of the San Antonio River, purchased by the congregation in 1897.
The College was approved by the Catholic Education Association and affiliated with The Catholic University of America in 1892. It became a member of the Association of Texas Colleges and Universities, the Southern Association of Colleges and Universities and other professional accrediting agencies.
At the time of that writing, the Library was contained some 26,000 volumes developed from a nucleus composed of the original Brackenridge Collection purchased with the property and the generosity of the Congregation. The Brackenridge Collection÷a highly prized special collection (now as well as then)÷consists of some 500 titles. Among these are rare specimens of worldwide fame, such as Lord Kingboroughâs Antiquities of Mexico, Purchaseâ Pilgrimes (printed in 1625) and a number of rare historical works on Mexico and Texas. Other collections and gifts added over the years have augmented and enriched this collection. From 1897 to 1900 this collection was housed in Brackenridge Villa. In 1900, when the new convent building was completed, the books were moved to quarters on the first floor of the building. They were arranged in glass cases around the room and throughout the years 1900 to 1922 was the General Library. During those years many purchases and donations supplemented the Brackenridge Collection. The 1907 school catalog was the first to refer to the library as a separate department. By 1929 the general library had grown to 12,000 volumes and was placed in charge of a trained librarian. The books were classified according to the Dewey Decimal System and the catalog consisted of an author and title index, but no subject index. Books for leisure reading were checked out on weekends.
With the opening of the Administration Building in 1922, the library was transferred to new quarters÷a spacious, well-lighted room on the second floor, south wing of the building. For the first few years, this room was used both as a stack room and reading room. As enrollments increased, the space allotted to the library proved inadequate and three adjoining rooms were incorporated as stack rooms. With this expansion, the library occupied one wing of the second floor of the Administration Building. The periodical department consisted of a well-lighted room with adjacent stack at the other end of the corridor. Here, the current periodicals (numbering about 1206) as well as several newspapers were filed. There were five or six hundred of the older and somewhat rare titles, which were of special value to students in history and literature, serving as primary sources for research. Among these were Gentlemenâs Magazine dating back to 1745; Annual Register, Westminister Review, Edinburgh Review, Cornhill Magazine, London Quarterly Review, London Society and All the Year Round. This department was under the direction of Sister Frederica, the acting librarian from 1920-29.
While classified according to the Dewey Decimal System, Library of Congress Cards were installed for the first time in 1935. The Library was equipped with general reference books, indices, bibliographic aids and source material; the reading room could seat eighty.
Beatrice Paddock was employed in 1930 as the first librarian with a degree in library science. Credit courses in Library Science were also introduced that year to meet the needs of teacher librarians. In 1934, Beatrice Paddock was succeeded by Bernice Snell, acting librarian, 1934-35, who was replaced by Sister M. Raphael Eccell, a Peabody library graduate. It was in these years that Incarnate Word was primarily a finishing school for girls from affluent families, with many coming from Mexico as well as the local San Antonio area.
The library had grown to some 26,000 volumes and outstanding features were the Brackenridge Collection, the School of Nursing Collection and the Texana Collection. Among the early donors to the library were Dr. Raymond Roehl, Chairman of the Department of English, John Cotter Sullivan, San Antonio attorney and friend, as well as alumnae and students.
With continued growth and expansion of Incarnate Word College and of the library collection, during the administration of Mother Collumkille, it was necessary to construct a separate building for library services, dedicated September 16, 1955. The new structure was designed with approximately 34,000 square feet on four floors and named to honor Pope Pius X. It cost approximately $55,000 and provided a large and attractive Reference Room, Periodicals Room (these were the first air-conditioned rooms on campus!), stacks and corridor radiating from the central lobby with card catalog and circulation desk. It contained an auditorium seating 150, offices, classrooms and stack tower. The building featured a Texana Room and one for the Special Collections of the Brackenridge Library. It was built of red brick in a modernistic style with jalousie windows and extensive use of glass block, ceramic glazed tile walls, terrazzo stairs and Azrock tile flooring. It was outfitted with blond oak library tables and chairs. Sr. Raphael Eccell continued to be the Library Director until retiring from the position in 1974. Sr. M. Collette Ross was appointed Acting Director 1974-75, and Mendell D. Morgan, Jr. was named Library Director in 1975. At that time, the staff consisted of seven other librarians, all of whom were members of the sisterâs congregation. The clerical staff and cataloger were lay persons. The collection contained about 106,633 bound volumes by that time, in addition to audiovisuals and periodical subscriptions.
In 1978 the Mission Statement of the library was articulated:
The Library serves to support the academic process with an appropriate collection of resources, offered in a spirit of Christian service, in a setting where equipment and facilities promote excellence in learning with materials to educate, inspire and recreate.
By the early 1980âs, however, the building was nearing capacity in its various collections and was becoming dated in appearance. While most of the building had been air conditioned, there was no central HVAC system, lighting was poor, and electrical and telephone outlets were limited. As computers began applying to library functions, there were increasing strains on the infrastructure. Rapid growth of enrollment and of the library collection led to a critical shortage of space.
It was also during this pivotal time that Incarnate Word College changed its name to the University of the Incarnate Word. The new name reflected the number and level of programs of study as well as the growth of the student body. Plans for a new building to accommodate the demands for computers, data and electric lines, as well as telephone connections, were developed. The design concept was to double the facility in size by adding a new, two-story stack tower on the east side and completely remodeling the original structure. Ground breaking was held Diez y Seis, 1995÷40 years from the dedication of the St. Pius X Library. An exhaustive multi-year fund raising campaign met the campaign goal of $6.2 million. It was anticipated that the construction would cost $5.5 million and the balance would be used for new technology and books for the library building. Since the library was to remain fully operational at all times, the project was designed to be built in two phases. After construction of the new stack tower in phase one, the entire library operation was moved into it in 1996. In phase two, the original building underwent extensive remodeling for the next year. During the summer of 1997 operations were moved back into their appropriate locations. The facility was formally dedicated on October 21, 1997. The dedication was attended by Dr. Louis J. Agnese, Jr., UIW President; John H. Conway, Vice President of the Mabee Foundation; UIW Board Chair Kathleen Watson; former Chair Dolores Mitchell; Sr. Theresa Stanley, Superior General of the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word; other trustees; members of the faculty and administration; major donors to the library campaign; and a large number of students, employees and guests.
Contributions and pledges for the library project included $1.5 million from members of UIWâs Board of Trustees, $2.5 million from foundations, $500,000 from corporations, and more than $130,000 from UIW employees. The new building was flexible and able to meet the needs of students with a variety of study spaces and seating for reading and research. All spaces were designed to meet standards established for Americans with Disabilities. Taking inspiration from the Brackenridge Villa, Special Collections was housed in a beautiful new space with appropriate casework and furnishings to reflect the history and traditions of the University. A new Computer Access Room became a center of activity and one of the most popular areas in the building.
In the fall of 1997, alumna Arsenne Blondin, had died, leaving her entire estate to the University. With the dedication of the new library, the Board of Trustees elected to liquidate the estate making approximately $2 million available to the Library for the purchase of resources to support the merging doctoral programs. The donation allowed the library to rapidly increase collection in all formats, including electronic access.
In 1998, just one year after the dedication of the expanded Mabee Library, San Antonio experienced a severe flood that caused $135,000 in damage to the new building, including some equipment and audiovisual materials housed on the lower level. Areas housing audiovisuals, media and instructional technology suffered the greatest damage and had to be relocated temporarily. Most traces of that catastrophe had been erased by the summer of 1999, however, and operations were restored to their intended locations.
During the spring of 1998, a nationally known library consultant, Dr. Gary Pitkin, was retained to make a comprehensive study and devise a plan to bring the library to a new state of development. Dr. Pitkinsâ report was divided into six: Collection Development and Management, Facilities, Programs and Services, Planning and Assessment, Organizational Management and Leadership, and University Commitment. Within each section, the analysis was composed of three parts: Institutional concerns; Consultantâs Observations; and Response and Recommendations Among other items, it was designed to bring collections up to standards set forth by the Association of College and Research Libraries division of the American Library Association. It included specific recommendations for each area identified by Dr. Pitkin with actions, such as establishing a position for an Information Technology librarian and hiring a qualified individual. The report, entitled Quest for Excellence was analyzed by a University committee which accepted and endorsed the report. Their recommendations were presented to the Planning Commission December 3, 1998. It included a five-year Action Chart with Budget Plan.
As the library enters the new millennium it is equipped with resources to accomplish many goals and improve its quality of services. The collection contains over 235,000 volumes in various formats with access to many full-text materials in book, document and periodical form. The collection has been greatly enhanced with about forty subscription databases giving abstracting, citation and indexing to a vast amount of material resident in electronic products and databases.
With explosive growth and development of technology, the library has become the logical place to incorporate both student research and word processing. Included in the plan was a recommendation for incorporating the Computer Lab within the library facility. This move was accomplished during the summer of 2000. As the search process was underway for the Information Technology librarian recommended in the plan, Incarnate Word received its first grant from the Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund Board. The $177,231 received allowed acceleration of the library in meeting goals for completing necessary infrastructure improvement, changing its integrated computer system to a web-based version and purchasing new computers for the information literacy classroom. Also at about this time the Incarnate Word became a laptop university giving sophomore and junior students IBM ThinkPad laptop.
Advances in Wireless Technology have allowed the university to begin installation of antennas in the library building during the fall of 2000 made it possible for students to access all library computerized databases and services from any point in the building without use of datalines. During the fall of 2000 the university also contracted for a Virtual Private Network, which allows any registered student to access the same databases and services from anyplace on the globe. This insured the ability of students at foreign locations, distance learners and those on the main campus to be on equal footing in online access to library resources.
As the University of the Incarnate Word continues to grow and to change, the library and its role in the academic life of the school also grows and changes. It faces new opportunities with each new program offered and with the changing needs of the student body. From the time of the founding of the university, the Library has been integral to the academic enterprise and has worked steadfastly to keep apace with its evolution and the new options for provision of service to its community of users.
