[209] Read All About It! Library Celebrates 10 Enlightening Years

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Nov. 23, 2009
EDITORIAL CONTACT: Gina Logue, 615-898-5081

READ ALL ABOUT IT! LIBRARY CELEBRATES 10 ENLIGHTENING YEARS
More Space, More Services, More Technological Progress for MTSU Students, Faculty

(MURFREESBORO) – The James E. Walker Library, named for the university’s eighth president, opened in 1999 with nearly 645,000 volumes, 3,500 journals and a budget of $269 per student. Today, the library has almost a million books and e-books, nearly 20,000 journals and databases and 350 desktop and laptop computers. The budget is $332 per student.
Advances in student-centered services over the last 10 years include increasing the number of computers, having laptops available for checkout, greater technological access to reference librarians, like instant messaging, texting and emailing a librarian for research help, and the availability of research coaches throughout the year.
“The completion of this building after so many years of waiting, discussing, designing, and constructing gave the university community a much needed boost toward what the university should and could be in the future,” says Don Craig, library dean. “Its beautiful appearance, its spaciousness and its functionality have been welcoming over 800,000 campus users each year with many more generations to come in the future.”
The first library on campus was housed on the third floor of Kirksey Old Main in 1912. It had 75 donated volumes available for checkout. In 1927 a second library opened with 2,000 volumes, located in Murfree Hall on the site where Peck Hall is today.
In 1958, the Todd Library, designed to handle 150,000 volumes, opened, an addition was built in 1970 allowing the Library to hold 225,000 volumes. Eventually, Todd would contain more than 600,000 volumes.
Students may enter a drawing for an iPod and other prizes by explaining their favorite thing about the library. Entry cards are available at desks located throughout the building, or students can e-mail their answers to favorites@ulibnet.mtsu.edu. The deadline is Monday, Nov. 30. The drawing is slated for Tuesday, Dec. 1.
For more information about the James E. Walker Library’s 10th anniversary, contact the library at 615-898-2817 or go to http://library.mtsu.edu.

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With three Nobel Prize winners among its alumni and former faculty, Middle Tennessee State University confers master’s degrees in 10 areas, the Specialist in Education degree, the Doctor of Arts degree and the Doctor of Philosophy degree. MTSU is ranked among the top 100 public universities in the nation in the Forbes “America’s Best Colleges” 2009 survey.