Henry G. Bennett Memorial Library is the primary

academic library An academic library is a library that is attached to a higher education institution and serves two complementary purposes: to support the curriculum and the research of the university faculty and students. It is unknown how many academic librar ...

Southeastern Oklahoma State University Southeastern Oklahoma State University (Southeastern, SE, or SOSU) is a public university in Durant, Oklahoma. It had an undergraduate enrollment of 4,824 in 2019. History On March 6, 1909, the Second Oklahoma State Legislature approved an a ...

in Durant, Oklahoma. Construction began in 1927 and was completed in 1928 in

Colonial Revival architecture The Colonial Revival architectural style seeks to revive elements of American colonial architecture. The beginnings of the Colonial Revival style are often attributed to the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, which reawakened Americans to the archi ...

, during Henry Garland Bennett's

presidency A presidency is an administration or the executive, the collective administrative and governmental entity that exists around an office of president of a state or nation. Although often the executive branch of government, and often personified by a ...

, SOSU's sixth president. The collection at Bennett Library has over 183,000 volumes, 485,000

microform Microforms are scaled-down reproductions of documents, typically either films or paper, made for the purposes of transmission, storage, reading, and printing. Microform images are commonly reduced to about 4% or of the original document size. F ...

s, and 878 current periodical titles. It also has a selection of newspapers,

sound recording Sound recording and reproduction is the electrical, mechanical, electronic, or digital inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording te ...

s, videos, and software. Additionally, as a selective U. S. Government depository, the library has holdings of approximately 87,816 government documents and 6,077 Oklahoma documents.

History

The library at Southeastern Normal School began in 1909. When the permanent building for the school was finished in 1910, the library was housed on the third floor. In 1911, a large shipment of books and materials was sent to the library. In 1915, the library was installed with lights, enabling students to study in the library at night. By 1917 the library had nearly one thousand

children’s book Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. Modern children's literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader. Children's ...

s, something that was not found in any other normal school in the state. Plans for housing the library in a separate building began early in 1927. Construction began later that year and completed in 1928 during the presidency of Henry G. Bennett, at a cost of $US114,000. The library building featured four large

Corinthian column The Corinthian order (Greek: Κορινθιακός ρυθμός, Latin: ''Ordo Corinthius'') is the last developed of the three principal classical orders of Ancient Greek architecture and Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric order ...

s, a first floor magazine room and a second floor that could accommodate four hundred students. The third floor was for departmental libraries and contained several classrooms. On the night of October 2, 1934, the library's north end caught fire. The fire was put out quickly by the Durant Fire Department and salvaged the building and many of the 30,000 books inside. The damage to the library was estimated at $50,000. The library building was repaired and in the late 1930s the library was designated as a depository for federal government documents, and lamp posts were installed in front of the library. Through the 1930s and 1940s improvements were made to the library building, and in 1954, air conditioning was installed. Another important event of the 1950s was the addition of the 50,000th book in 1954. For many years the library building housed the cafeteria in the basement, as well as the library and classrooms above. It was a closed-

stack Stack may refer to: Places * Stack Island, an island game reserve in Bass Strait, south-eastern Australia, in Tasmania’s Hunter Island Group * Blue Stack Mountains, in Co. Donegal, Ireland People * Stack (surname) (including a list of people ...

library with the stacks on the south side. During the mid-sixties, the building was completely renovated with an addition on the west. It has been an open-stack library since then. As

computer technology Computing is any goal-oriented activity requiring, benefiting from, or creating computing machinery. It includes the study and experimentation of algorithmic processes, and development of both hardware and software. Computing has scientific, e ...

progressed in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, the library slowly began to implement computers in the library. By 1988, there were two

database In computing, a database is an organized collection of data stored and accessed electronically. Small databases can be stored on a file system, while large databases are hosted on computer clusters or cloud storage. The design of databases sp ...

s for students on computer. The library services were automated in 1990 when the Data Research Association Library System was selected, which is an integrated on-line system providing circulation, public access catalog, cataloging, acquisitions, and serials components. The Ardmore Higher Education Center Library’s holdings are also included in the database. Further purchase of computer equipment and addition of more computer databases further increased the use of computers in the library. By 1997 there were thirteen computer for student use which enabled students to search several databases and use the Internet. The library began a web presence with introduction of its web page in 1997. In 1999 a computer lab was installed in the library with forty computers where students can do research, use library databases, write papers, or check their e-mail.

Namesake

Henry G. Bennett Henry G. Bennett (December 14, 1886 – December 22, 1951) was a prominent educational figure in Oklahoma. He served as the president of both Southeastern Oklahoma State University and Oklahoma State University. He was appointed by President Harr ...

served as the sixth president of

, from 1919 to 1928. After his presidency at SOSU, Bennett was nominated as president at

Oklahoma A&M College Oklahoma (; Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, New M ...

and served from 1928 to 1950. The library building was named the Henry G. Bennett Memorial Library in 1982 during

homecoming Homecoming is the tradition of welcoming back alumni or other former members of an organization to celebrate the organization's existence. It is a tradition in many high schools, colleges, and churches in the United States, Canada and Liberia. ...

festivities.

References

External links

Henry G. Bennett Memorial Library
{{Authority control Libraries in Oklahoma Buildings and structures in Bryan County, Oklahoma Library buildings completed in 1928 1928 establishments in Oklahoma