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The Mesa State College Library:
A Brief History of its Development
1925 - 2000
by Don MacKendrick, Emeritus Professor of History,
Mesa State College
The Tomlinson Library at Mesa State College, like
the college, evolved from humble beginnings.
Grand Junction
Junior College Library 1925-1940
 Founded
in 1925 as Grand Junction Junior College and initially located in
an abandoned school building (the old Lowell School) in the city's
downtown area, the college's original book collection numbered under
2,000 volumes. It was housed in locked cases in the dean's office.
There was no librarian.
 In
1933 a professional librarian, Lillian Sabin, was hired and a library
was organized on the second floor of the college building. By 1940,
the collection had grown to 7,000 volumes thanks to a grant from
Hattie Pierson Murr (1935) and the Carnegie Foundation (1937).
Murr
Library 1940-1967
The former grant led to designation of the college library as the
Murr Memorial Library, a name that applied until 1967.
 The
College became a county junior college in 1937 and was renamed Mesa
College. A new campus on North Avenue was occupied in 1940
with the library located on the second floor of the main classroom
building (later named Houston Hall) where it quickly outgrew its
approximately 4,000 square feet of floor space as the collection
expanded to over 20,000 volumes by 1965.
Heiny Library
1967-1986
Thanks
to a generous federal library construction grant, Mesa College got
a new $846,000 library facility in 1966, the Lowell Heiny Library.
With 21,000 square feet of useable floor space, this modern facility
quickly grew to over 45,000 volumes in 1973 and to 71,000 volumes
in 1976. In 1976 the junior college district was dissolved
and Mesa College became a baccalaureate degree granting state college.
The collection reached over 126,000 volumes by 1984.
 
Tomlinson Library
1986 - Present
With the
Lowell Heiny Library overcrowded, construction of a new 68,000 square
foot facility costing over $6,000,000 began in 1984. Recognized
as an architectural gem in American School and University
magazine, the new library was dedicated in 1986 and in 1988 named
for outgoing college president John U. Tomlinson to honor his commitment
to improved library services at the college.
 Today
Tomlinson Library contains over 190,000 volumes, including a large
government documents collection, and a world class geology library.
It is equipped with state-of-the-art computer technology and is
considered one of the finest small college libraries in the state.
Comments,
questions, etc.
Last updated on
07/05/2002
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