The University Library in the Days of the Normal School, 1862-1923
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The second Normal School building
in San José. |
The Move to San José
| Librarian Ruth Royce and the Three Normal School Buildings
| Librarian Helen Evans
| Historical Photos
The Move to San José
The San José State University Library has its beginnings in the
early days of the California State Normal School, founded May
2, 1862, in San Francisco. Previously known as Minn’s Evening
Normal School, founded in 1857 for the purpose of educating teachers
for San Francisco schools, the new state institution began to
provide several thousand dollars of funding annually for a nascent
library that by early 1864 included 1000 books, mostly textbooks,
with the remainder reference works and books of general reading.
After considering a number of neighboring towns, the Normal School
Board of Trustees decided to relocate the School to San José in
1870, as San Francisco was thought to be too distracting of an
environment for the students, and also auspiciously because library
facilities were too small in the San Francisco facility.
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Librarian Ruth Royce and the Three Normal School Buildings
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In 1872 the first California State Normal School building in
San José was completed, and included a separate room for the Library
on the first floor. This building was destroyed by fire February
10, 1880, but fortunately, most of the Library’s 2000 volumes
were saved.
By May of 1881, a new building was completed, and once again
a room was designated for the Library on the first floor. It was
at this time that the first full-time Librarian, Ruth Royce, was
appointed. Previously, solely student volunteers between classes
monitored the Library. During Royce’s 37-year tenure as
Librarian, the Library was to experience significant growth in
collection size, and in stature.
In 1887, when the name of the institution was changed to the
San José State Normal School, the Library contained over 3000
volumes. Unfortunately, the great “San Francisco”
earthquake of April 1906 rendered the Normal School building unfit
for use, so the Library, as well as all of the classrooms was
relocated to temporary facilities, known as “The Shacks.”
The third Normal School building, including the present day Tower
and a connecting separate wing to the northwest for the Library,
was completed in 1910. By this time, the Library had increased
to 12,000 volumes.
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Librarian Helen Evans
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In 1918, Helen Evans became the second Librarian at the Normal
School, after having served as an assistant to Ruth Royce. During
her five-year tenure, the Library increased to 21,000 works, and
Evans was responsible for introducing the Dewey Decimal classification
system to the Library. Prior to this, works were arranged generally
by subject, and often required the direct assistance of the Librarian
or her assistants in order to locate the books on the shelves.
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Historical Photos - The Normal School 1862-1923
More Historical
Photos
Photos courtesy of SJSU Special Collections/University
Archives
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This page last updated September 26, 2008 by the
Web Team
