Table of Contents
Library
The library is the signature building of any academic institution. 1)
A library is the soul of a [liberal arts] education. 2)
Trinity College has actively curated a library to support research and study since the inception of Washington College–Trinity's original name–in 1823. In 1952, the Watkinson Library rare books and special collections joined the Trinity Library, moving into its current space in 1979. In 2002, the Computing Center was physically moved from the Nutt Mathematics, Computing, and Engineering Center to the expanded Library and Information Technology Center (LITC) building. In 2015, the Library began a process of merging with Information Technology Services, starting with the creation of a combined Library/IT desk. Since the College's early days, Trinity's information professionals have continued to provide collaborative service, collection development, and research assistance that helps maintain Trinity's reputation as a world-class place of learning.
The Washington College Library
After receiving the charter to found Washington College in May 1823, a first order of business included collecting books to begin the College's library. The Rev. Nathaniel Wheaton traveled to England during the summer of 1823, obtaining about 400 titles in 1,146 volumes. 3) Primarily religious and classical literature from the 17th-18th centuries, Trinity still retains many of the volumes from “the Wheaton Collection,” though at the time some students found the collections outdated.
Beginning in 1824, students were charged $1.00 per term for use of the library, which was only open for several hours a day. The library was housed in Seabury Hall after its completion in 1825.
Borrowing privileges allowed students to take one book for two to four weeks at a time, depending on the size of the volume. The librarian could assess overdue fines and penalties for writing in books. Additionally, the librarian filled an important role as gatekeeper of what students could and could not read, by requiring permission to borrow or acquire books outside of the curriculum: “No student shall, without permission, take any book from any library kept out of the College; nor may any Society purchase any books, or receive any into their libraries, which the College librarian does not approve; whose duty it shall be to advise with such society, and to assist them in making a judicious selection of books.” 4)
The formation of literary societies also assisted in rapidly increasing the books held by Washington College. The Athenaeum, a literary and debating society, was formed in 1825, joined by the Parthenon in 1827; they collected “a considerable collection of poetry, dramatic works, novels, tales, and romances, areas in which the College Library was rather weak.” These books were regarded as “an integral part of the College Library…the combined society collections exceeded that of the regular College Library in size.” 5) When the societies disbanded in 1870, their expansive libraries were donated to the College for incorporation into the main collection.
In the summer of 1826, the Rev. Dr. Samuel Farmar Jarvis (son of the Rt. Rev. Abraham Jarvis) donated his extensive personal collection of books to the library. As opposed to the Wheaton collection, his 4,000 volumes were “rich in literature and history” with “a recent selection of leading authors.” As the College was unclear regarding the donation agreement, “the librarians attempted to forbid the undergraduates use” of them, though the students did, anyway. The 1826 Terms of Admission and Course Studies, Expenses, &Etc., read: “A good Library has been obtained; and the Rev. Dr. Jarvis has very generously deposited his valuable collection of Books in the institution, for the use of the Students.” By 1837, the combined total of the library and society libraries totaled 14,000, but the College ran into a problem: Dr. Jarvis, who was by then serving as Professor of Oriental Languages, was unhappy with the way his collection was being stewarded, particularly that some of the books had gone missing. When Jarvis resigned that year from Washington College, his collections left with him, dropping the College's volumes to no more than 6,000.
Through the following decades, the College established an Alumni Library fund, revamped the library and created an inventory of books. The duties of “Librarian” were fulfilled by the tutors until 1852, when the trustees established the Librarian as an independent position. The first Librarian was Samuel Fermor Jarvis, son of the same Samuel Farmar Jarvis who had donated and revoked his collections. Both Jarvis and his successor, Charles J. Hoadley, Class of 1851, served short terms but were instrumental in the development and improvement of the library.
By 1868, a new Master Plan was in development and a designated library building was included in the proposed additions. With the gift of the literary societies' libraries in 1870, the collections grew to 15,000 volumes, enough to fill two reading rooms which were open from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Alongside books, the libraries boasted for the first time “Hartford and New York newspapers, college papers, and English periodicals.” 6) One of the students' favorite publications was the New York Daily Graphic, as Trinity alumnus Arthur Dyer, Class of 1870, was on the staff and “did everything in his power to put the name of 'Trinity'” in the paper.
However, the new library that students were to receive was not in the way they expected. In 1872, the trustees accepted the City of Hartford's offer to purchase the old campus land, and the buildings were demolished after a final commencement in 1878. The new library would not just be in a new building, but on a new campus entirely.
The Seabury Library
Upon moving to the Summit campus in 1878, 18,000 volumes were relocated to the basement and ground floor at the south end of the new Seabury Hall. At first, the library was only open from 2-3:00 p.m. each day, which expanded to three hours per day in 1883. A physical description of the library written by W. C. Brocklesby, Class of 1869, appeared in the October 26, 1878 Trinity Tablet Supplement, detailed with “exactness and minutiae.”
The library staff included the Reverend John Humphrey Barbour and student assistants whenever possible. Barbour had catalogued the book collection and created a card catalog, but many books went missing due to “untrained though well-wishing student amateurs.”
By the 1890s, “students constantly complained that the Library was not being kept up to date and that the book collection was more suitable to the older curricula which had been adopted in 1884.” 7) However, others found value in its rich collections of older materials dating to the 17th and 18th centuries, including religious pamphlets, government documents, medical works, scientific periodicals and English literature, History, and Political Economy. In 1895, Trinity College became a member of the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) which distributes government publications to participating libraries for public use; it remains a member today.
The library collections totaled 39,682 volumes by 1900 and the library was open five to six hours per day. Since the Department of Natural History moved to the brand-new Boardman Hall that year, the library had more space, and both the book collections and student population boomed in part to a growing curriculum.
For the first time, the library needed a full-time librarian. Trinity's first trained librarian was Mr. William Newnham Chattin Carlton. After working at the Holyoke Public Library for a short period, Carlton came to Hartford to work as an assistant in the Watkinson Library, which was then housed in the Wadsworth Atheneum. Carlton, who had not completed his college education as of yet, took classes with Professor Samuel Hart, Class of 1866, who was serving as librarian at the time. Hart recommended Carlton, whom he described as “something of a scholar,” as his successor upon his retirement. Carlton left Trinity in 1919, but continued to serve libraries around the world.
The 1902 Ivy reported that the library had grown to 47,000 volumes, plus over 26,000 pamphlets. A reading room was equipped with electricity, allowing evening hours as well as daytime. By 1904, the library was open “at all hours” to students.
On May 22, 1907, at about 10:45 a.m., Seabury Hall caught fire. Spotting smoke and flames, students and faculty worked to rescue books and photographs and extinguish the fire as they realized that the water from fire engines would be just as damaging to the books if they did not hurry. According to the Trinity Tripod, “there was not the slightest disorder” during the two-and-a-half hour incident; “The way that faculty, alumni, athletes, grind and employee worked side by side, many wet to the skin with black and besmeared faces, all nearly exhausted, will long remain in the minds of all those who were on the campus Wednesday morning.” 8)
A satirical piece in the 1909 Ivy suggested that the students took advantage of the situation to have fun and that afterwards far too many of them claimed to have played a key role in rescuing the collection: “Every man in college was there–everyone rang in the alarm–and everyone was the man that saved the building. Even the professors stood in a pool of water and let someone in a window above hurl pamphlets at the small of their august backs, while they threw empty clothes baskets at the helpless women and children who were sprinkled in the way.” 9)
In 1912, J. P. Morgan traveled to Hartford to visit his cousins and Trinity trustees, Francis and James Goodwin. During the visit, Morgan spoke with President Flavel Sweeten Luther, who mentioned the need for a new library. Morgan enthusiastically agreed to fund the building, which could also serve as memorial to his late friend Bishop John Williams. It was a project that could fulfill two needs the College had been hoping to achieve since 1899.
The Williams Memorial Library
Though Morgan died in 1913, Williams Memorial still began construction later that year, under Morgan's chosen architect Benjamin Wistar Morris, Class of 1893. Dedicated in October 1914, Williams Memorial was built with space for a bigger library and reading room on the second floor. Significantly, Williams' location was “at precisely the point specified in the original campus plan prepared by William Burges.” At the time of its completion, the library contained 65,000 volumes.
In 1916, J. P. Morgan's son donated $150,000 “for benefit of the Library.” The 1916 librarian's report, however, noted a decline in the presence of students in the library. The only explanation he could produce was a combination of factors: the completion of the new College Union containing a selection of popular periodicals, an overall decline in student enrollment due to World War I, and the students' change in preference of study areas. The librarian noted out of concern, “It is to be hoped that the decreased attendance does not indicate a falling off in the habit of 'browsing', so conducive to the cultivation of literary taste and to the growth of literary acquaintance, which the atmosphere of the old library seemed peculiarly to foster.” 10)
During the 1940s, the College began planning a 125th Anniversary Campaign to raise funds for designated needs on campus, among them an addition to Williams Memorial to accommodate the expanding library. A 1946 Tripod article detailed that “reading room facilities are overtaxed, and the 185,000 volumes cannot be kept in stacks designed for 180,000. Many books are piled in corners and thus are completely useless.”
Designed by O'Connor & Kilham, the architects who later designed many other campus buildings, the planned addition would cost $450,000 and would involve rebuilding Williams, adding a 90-foot extension “90 feet north of the present east wing” with an entrance tower, seven tiers of stacks (also in a tower) able to support 150,000 volumes, bay windows, a new reading room, and lobby–all entirely fireproof. 11)
It soon became apparent, however, that a new building, rather than an addition, was necessary to support the Library's needs for space, due in part to the decision to move the Watkinson Library collections from the Atheneum to Trinity. By 1950, the funds were secured and construction on the Trinity Library could begin.
Raether Library and Information Technology Center
The New Library (1952-1977)
Groundbreaking on the library building took place on November 11, 1950, just east of the Chemistry building; the planned four floors would be able to house 500,000 volumes and 325 students. In March 1952, students took on the herculean task of moving 275,000 volumes from Williams Memorial to the new library; it was ready for use by the beginning of the fall semester and formally dedicated on November 8, 1952.
The design of the new library resulted from the collaboration of College Librarian Donald B. Engley and the architect Robert B. O'Connor, Class of 1916, who had just completed work on the Firestone Library at Princeton University. The Trinity College Library featured a spacious arrangement of book stacks, offices, workrooms, a periodical and smoking room, seminar rooms, study alcoves, and private carrels for faculty and student research. For the first time in the College's history, there was also sufficient space to accommodate art exhibitions, and from the library's very opening, paintings and sculpture were on display as were interesting items from Trinity's collections. The old library quarters in Williams underwent conversion to office space in 1956. 12)
Despite the smoking room accommodations, Librarian Donald Engley wrote an editorial to the Tripod in December 1952, to report news of damages inflicted by those students “who insist[ed] on smoking everywhere in the building.” Damages included burn marks in furniture, cigarette butts and ash everywhere, and “no smoking” signs torn down. If this did not stop, Engley wrote, there would be no choice but to prohibit smoking entirely.
The Watkinson library merged with the brand-new library building as planned in 1952 and was housed on the third floor. The Library Associates, also formed in 1951, helped support the library through fundraising, networking, and promotion of library materials and resources through newsletters called the Trinity College Library Gazette.
The Librarian's Annual Report of 1959-1960 noted a new policy that books could be checked out for two months rather than two weeks.
Intended to be sufficient for 20-25 years, by 1965, the library was in demand of space for books and students that were not expected until at least a decade later; as a result, a small expansion was completed by 1967 to increase book capacity and expand student capacity through the addition of 100 study carrels. The library's collections by the late 1970s numbered over 600,000 volumes and were “one of the most extensive collections among small colleges.”
The 1963-1964 Report of the Librarian tells of a possible future of libraries:
A distinguished Trinity alumnus, Verner W. Clapp, '22, writing recently in his capacity as head of the Council on Library Resources, has discussed “the democratization of the library.” While his words were written in the context of the development of computers to make the knowledge buried in printed books more readily accessible to potential users everywhere, they carry the same force in the more elementary matter of sharing of the basic responsibilities of acquisition and storage of resources for common and community use.
Computers entered the Trinity community during the early 1970s. Called “terminals,” the computers were stations that served a specific purpose, such as searching catalog records. Trinity joined the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) in 1974 through membership in the New England Library Network (NETLINET). Today known as WorldCat, it is a shared database for browsing catalog records across various institutions: “this program eliminates extensive duplication of work by individual libraries and provides catalog cards produced by the computer on a daily basis. Previously, most of the cards were produced here, a time consuming procedure.” 13) It also allowed students to see which libraries owned a particular item for inter-library loan purposes.
A 1976 Tripod article, meanwhile, detailed the precursor to 2023's Libguides, illustrating that, like WorldCat, some research methods evolve with technology rather than disappear:
At the Reference Desk are a series of bibliographies covering different subject fields that will aid you in your research. We've provided you with a variety of possible sources to check for information such as dictionaries and encyclopedias, biographical sources, periodical indexes and abstracts, and other bibliographies on the topic. Most include the call number so you can go right to the shelf for the material.
The student body more than doubled in size by 1977 due to the introduction of coeducation and expanding enrollment quotas, overtaxing the building. Meanwhile, the library collections were steadily growing at a rate of about 10,000 volumes per year. As such, Trinity's 150th Anniversary Capital Campaign included a library expansion that was overdue: “Nearly 50,000 volumes, of the library's total collection of 597,389 items are presently stored in the basement of the Life Sciences building. The new addition is intended to accommodate library expansion for approximately another twenty years.” 14)
A Technological Expansion (1978-2000)
In 1977, a $3.9 million expansion and renovation commenced under College Librarian Ralph S. Emerick; it was “the costliest building project ever undertaken by the College.” 15) Designed by Cambridge Seven Associates, the project grew the building to five stories and 42,000 square feet, capacity for 1 million volumes and 650 students, and installed compact shelving on the ground floor.
The addition, on the east side of the building, was joined to the original exterior by a large skylight over the reading room. Formerly enclosed and separated form the rest of the building, the main reading room was redesigned as an open concept. Various exterior details such as window frames were incorporated into the interior where they connected to the addition, and the Watkinson Library moved to its current location on Level A.
Computers, more specifically the introduction of the Internet, transformed and challenged the way that librarians traditionally did their jobs and the way that students traditionally researched.
In 1983, Trinity installed a OCLC computer terminal which allowed students to search over nine million catalog records. Librarian Ralph Emerick believed that “within five years,” Trinity would change from using a card catalog (which cost at the time $90,000 to upkeep) to a retrieval system through OCLC ($50,000 per year).
The year 1984 brought the creation of the CTW Consortium, establishing a collaboration with Connecticut College and Wesleyan University that has lasted decades. The “CTW System” became a reality in 1986, in which a shared Sirsi catalog between the three libraries and interlibrary loan system was developed.
The library and its staff, meanwhile, became increasingly aware of electronic and non-print resources, as well as the equipment needed to access them. By June 30, 1998, the library's non-print materials totaled around 612,000 items, consisting of microforms, sound recordings, video recordings, slides, digital images, and electronic products. The print holdings stood at 941,000, plus 2,300 periodical subscriptions. 16)
As the computer-driven technological revolution of the 1980s and 1990s advanced information and data management systems to new levels of sophistication, library and information technology professionals everywhere became increasingly aware of overlaps between their respective areas of expertise. Those relationships, while always important to both disciplines, became much more crucial amid advancements in software applications and increasingly widespread use of the Internet. 17)
In 1995, during a meeting, Professor Henry DePhillips (Vernon Krieble Professor of Chemistry and former interim dean of faculty), John Langeland (director of information technology), and Stephen L. Peterson (associate academic dean and former college librarian) posed the idea that the computing center move into the library building. After drafting a detailed report, the idea was brought to the trustees, who agreed that a discussion should begin.
Another major library renovation was also on the horizon–having begun investigation in 1991. The library expansion became part of a Capital Campaign as well as the 1997 Master Plan. This time, the renovation would not just be for space and print volumes, but have the capacity to incorporate new departments, technology, and network infrastructure.
LITC (2001-present)
Breaking ground on May 19, 2001, the library's second renovation and expansion doubled the building's size and was completed in 2003. Designed by Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg (KPMB) Architects of Toronto, much of the new addition was on the library's south side. The building was renamed the Library and Information Technology Center (LITC), dedicated to Wendy and Paul E. Raether ’68, P’93, ’96, ’01.
Video, music, and laser disc collections were added to the library's print materials as well as digital media labs and “hundreds of study spaces wired to the college’s computer network, a language laboratory, a music and media services center, and 24-hour study areas.” The library also began producing a quarterly newsletter titled Connections in 2001 to update the campus community on staffing, building, and collections changes. By this time, personal laptop computers were becoming more common among students, and the computer terminals would eventually be obsolete.
By Fall 2003, the building's construction and staffing were complete with the addition of the Computing Center, Media Technology Services (formerly the Audio Visual Department), the Blume Language Center, and the Funston Café (Peter B's). Two departments–Music and Media Services and Visual Resources–were part of the library but were still located in Austin Arts Center and Hallden Hall, respectively. Both departments eventually moved to the library; Visual Resources joined in 2009.
During the 2000s and 2010s, library staff continued to explore the possibilities of digital media and content. The Music & Media Services department opened a self-service conversion room, Visual Resources joined the ArtStor digital library to showcase its digitized images, and in 2010 the Digital Repository was created to collect and showcase institutional publications, research, and projects. Digital archives and the repository continue to be an important function of showcasing the library's archival and special collections content. The Center for Educational Technology, which is housed in the new addition on Level 1, employs student staff to assist others with digital scholarship tools and questions. It also boasts a Makerspace with 24-hour access VR gaming, 3D printing, podcasting studios, and suites of digital tools.
The Library and IT divisions merged in 2015 to become one organization, initially called Information Services. The organizational name changed to Library and Information Technology Services (LITS) in 2022, in part the result of the “Three-Year Report on the Library-IT Merger” (March 2019) which recommended the change to “signal to the Trinity community and to future job applicants the central role of the library in this organization and on our campus.”
Staff continue to work with students to improve the building, spaces, and programming based on their feedback and needs. The library building, which persistently suffered from the constant strain of becoming overtaxed by library collections and students, has stabilized with the student population and rise of digital resources, which do not take up physical space. Open and comfortable areas for study and collaboration complete with large screens, writable walls, and hookups have become important to students.
In 2022 and 2023, the library invited student artists to paint murals to brighten common areas and expanded leisure reading areas with the removal of stacks and addition of cozy furniture. The library has also created new exhibition spaces in order to showcase art as well as interesting items from the archives and special collections, just as it did in 1952.
In 2023, Trinity College officially became a part of the Boston Library Consortium, joining 23 other New England area institutions in a collaboration of shared resources and professional development opportunities.
Library staff, which include research and outreach librarians, instructional designers, digital projects/scholarship coordinators, circulation and catalog librarians, archivists, digitization technicians, and student workers continue to make research and support for faculty and students their primary mission, regardless of what changes in technology may come. The library continues to collect the materials that researchers need and utilize the building's space to optimize their use. The contemporary volumes of the College's first library in 1823 are now considered fragile special collections, but they are a reminder of the evolution that libraries have experienced over 200 years.
Sources
The Trinity Reporter (Winter 2004), pp. 2-15.
"Trinity Sets Library Renovation," Hartford Courant, 9 May 2001.
Trinity College in the Twentieth Century (2000) by Peter and Anne Knapp, pp. 123, 182-184, 256, 413-414, 423-424.
The Trinity Reporter (Spring 1979), pp. 10-15.
The Trinity Tripod, 10/17/1978.
The History of Trinity College (1967) by Glenn Weaver.
Trinity College Bulletin, 1963-1964 (Report of the Librarian) (1964).
The Trinity Tripod, 12/10/1952.
Trinity College Bulletin (Report of the Librarian) (1941).
Trinity College Bulletin (Report of the Librarian) (1916).
Trinity College Bulletin, April 1915, Dedication of Williams Memorial (1915).
The Trinity Ivy, 1909 (1909).
The Trinity Ivy, 1902 (1902).
Catalogue of Trinity College, 1862-63 (1863).
Catalogue of Washington College (Officers and Students), 1837-1838 (1838).
Washington College Terms of Admission, Course of Studies, Expenses (1826).