Branford Price Millar Library

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Branford Price Millar Library


Location Portland State University
Portland, Oregon
Number of branches 1
Collection size 1,368,635 volumes[1]
Annual circulation 288,320 (2006-2007)[1]
Director Helen H. Spalding
Employees 25[1]
Website library.pdx.edu

The Branford Price Millar Library is the library of Portland State University (PSU) in Portland, Oregon, United States. Built in 1968, the academic library was doubled in size in 1991 and houses over 1 million volumes. The five-story building is located on the school's campus on the South Park Blocks in Downtown Portland and is the largest academic library in the Portland area.

Contents

[edit] History

In 1959, the first PSU library building, Library East, was completed under the presidency of Branford Millar.[2] That library had its 1 millionth visitor in 1962 and was replaced in 1968 with the Branford P. Millar Memorial Library.[2] Portland State was known as Portland State College until 1969.[2]

In August 1989, construction began on an $11 million expansion of the library that doubled the size of the facility.[3] Constructed by Wildish Building Company and designed by architectural firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the expansion added the curved glass wall on the east face of the building providing views of the South Park Blocks.[3][4] Paid for by the state of Oregon, the expansion also remodeled the existing structure.[3] The 72,000 square foot addition was completed in 1991 with a dedication ceremony held in April. At that time, the library contained 850,000 volumes.[5]

In 1992, the library joined a Portland area electronic library network.[6] A former library employee was convicted of embezzling more than $200,000 from the library in 1997.[7] Millar Library was remodeled in 2001 at a cost of $2.8 million to create a learning center, technology upgrades, and new furnishings.[8] Funds came from private donations, the state, and the federal government.[8]

The library launched the Oregon Sustainable Community Digital Library in 2005 to contain land use planning documents created in Oregon.[9] Until 2007, Millar Library served as the state’s Regional Federal Depository Library when it became one of four libraries sharing the collection.[10]

[edit] Building

Branford Price Millar Library is housed in a five-story building on the PSU campus.[3] The building includes a curved exterior wall covered with ceiling to floor windows on the eastern side of the building, wrapping around a copper beech tree planted on the site in the 1800s.[3] Tan colored bricks are used for the other exterior walls.[11] Inside, the library contains study rooms, a computer lab, offices, and the school’s archives office in addition to the library’s collections.[12] With 194,783 square-feet of space, the library is the largest academic library in the Portland metropolitan area and covers an entire city block.[13]

[edit] Collections

The library has a total of 1,368,635 volumes in its collections and an annual circulation of 288,320 items.[1] PSU’s library is a federal depository library and member of the PORTALS electronic network.[14] The library is also a member of the ORBIS online catalog and lending network.[8] Other memberships include OCLC, Coalition for Networked Information, Northwest Digital Archives, and Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition among others.[15]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d Facts & Figures about Portland State Library. Portland State University. Retrieved on June 7, 2008.
  2. ^ a b c PSU Timeline: PSU at 50. The Oregonian, February 15, 1996.
  3. ^ a b c d e PSU library work under way. The Oregonian, August 24, 1989.
  4. ^ Hill, Jim. PSU invites public to library dedication. The Oregonian, November 2, 1991.
  5. ^ Hill, Jim. PSU invites public to alumni weekend. The Oregonian, October 29, 1991.
  6. ^ Portland librarians learn electronic library network. The Oregonian, November 24, 1992.
  7. ^ Trujillo, Laura. PSU retiree draws work release, restitution for embezzlement. The Oregonian, September 23, 1997.
  8. ^ a b c Scopel, Lee. Research and learning center under construction at PSU. Daily Journal of Commerce, July 17, 2001.
  9. ^ Lai, Smyth A. and Voros, Kimberly. “Capturing the past and planning for the future: building a digital library for Oregon's Sustainable Community; Report”. Environments, August 1, 2007, Pg. 45(12) Vol. 35 No. 1 ISSN: 0711-6780.
  10. ^ Federal Government Information. Oregon State Library. Retrieved on June 7, 2008.
  11. ^ What a grind. The Oregonian, July 13, 1990.
  12. ^ Maps & Directions. Portland State University. Retrieved on June 7, 2008.
  13. ^ Madsen, Jana. No Stranger to Change: PSU Combines Innovation With Ingenuity to Improve Campus Facilities. Buildings, July 2002.
  14. ^ U.S. grant will help link libraries to U.N., Census. The Oregonian, October 11, 1993.
  15. ^ Organizational Memberships. Portland State University. Retrieved on June 7, 2008.

[edit] External links