LSU’s Hill Memorial Library opened a new space called the Special Collections Reading Room on Friday as part of a wider initiative to demystify and welcome the community into LSU’s Special Collection headquarters.
Before its recently completed renovations, the Hill Memorial Library featured a General Reading Room on the second floor, now the home of a quiet study area. The newly unveiled reading room can be found on the first floor.
The space’s grand opening saw about 20 students and community members attend. As part of the festivities, library staff held a scavenger hunt with prizes — a $5 gift card to CC’s Coffee House — for the first 10 participants to complete the hunt.
Questions for the hunt centered on the history of LSU and led participants throughout the library on a type of informal tour.
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The Special Collections Reading Room was designed as a space for all members of the community, including those outside the LSU system, to carry out research in a private, quiet room within the library.
Hill is also home to a Special Collections Request System, enabling those interested to register as a library user and have materials retrieved for viewing within the library. These collections range from the Bowlus Comic Book Collection, to football magazines dating back to 1933, to beautiful illustrations of Humming Birds by John Gould and H.C. Richter.
“I don’t come here that often because in the past I didn’t think this was a place where I could just show up, but now I know they’ve got this Reading Room, I guess I am welcome,” said LSU library science postgraduate Jason Luquette.
The main impetus for the reading room was to add more public space to the library and to show the community Hill is more than the home of LSU’s special collection, according to Kelly Larson, head of research and public services of LSU Libraries Special Collections.
“One of the most valuable things we do is we reward people’s curiosity,” Larson said.
The library’s special collection includes volumes from the humanities and social sciences, natural sciences, agriculture, aquaculture, the fine arts and design.
The division’s principal mission is to preserve these collections, add to them and make them available for use, according to the LSU Libraries website.
“We’re very proud of our building, and we want to share it with everyone,” Larson said.
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Hill opened as LSU’s first dedicated library in 1903, housing 22,000 volumes. By the ‘40s its collection had grown tenfold, but by the ‘50s, the library was aged and small compared to those of other universities in the region. In 1954, a report by the Reveille found that out of six major Southern universities, LSU had the smallest and oldest library.
When the LSU Library opened in 1959, Hill became the home of a series of other projects and departments.
The space was dedicated for LSU’s Special Collections in 1985 to administer rare books, manuscripts and other special research opportunities.
Today, Hill is making steps to fold itself back into the community as a space for research, reflection and study. The new Special Collections Reading Room is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
