Merrill’s face changes ove time, purpose remains the same
On the northeast corner of the Quad at Utah State University sits a building that stays open later than many of Logan’s businesses.
The Merrill Library started with 1,500 volumes in Old Main and scattered collections over the campus before Utah State was declared an official university.
It holds the Special Collections section and the Hatch Room that dates back to the 1600s.
Originally the Merrill Library was not as it’s seen it today, according to Richard Schockmel, the acquisitions librarian.
The first building was opened Dec. 4, 1930, Schockmel said. It was called the Utah Agricultural Library then and was built with the help of students and the legislature.
In 1927, the Endowment Library Fund Committee raised student fees $3 (equal to about $28 now) to earn $100,000. The Utah Legislature also contributed $150,000 to build the four-story library.
Its most impressive feature, Schockmel said, was a two-story reading room on the second and third floors.
Students weren’t allowed access to the book stacks, but would present their requests to a librarian, who got the books for them. They could then read them in the reading room, Schockmel said.
Two additions to the building were begun in 1963. The first was on the northeast and south, and the second, smaller addition, was on the southwest corner.
It was then that the building was named after Milton R. Merrill who was the academic provost at the time.
“He was a remarkable gentleman and scholar of an old school nature that is rare today,” Schockmel said.
Schockmel said he had an open-door policy for students, and he would put aside administrative work to help a student with problems of an academic nature.
“He loved the great questions,” Schockmel said.
When these additions were made, Schockmel said they had to gut the reading room and separate the two floors.
“A lot of people are still upset about what was done. It was a gorgeous room,” Schockmel said.
The new additions can be identified by the round pillars connecting floor to ceiling.
In the 1970s, the circulation and reference desks were moved and the audio visual department was placed in a more prominent position.
After these renovations, Schockmel said the student visitation rate went down “and it took 20 years to get it back the way it was.”
The most recent renovations moved the desks back to their previous positions, and with this Schockmel said about 500,000 people now visit the library each year.
Plans are in the works for the Merrill to be replaced or expanded, Schockmel said. Additions to the Sci-Tech Library are first on the list, but Schockmel said he would like the Merrill to be next.
“This building has to be extensively renovated,” Schockmel said. “Hopefully we’ll have it resolved in the next half a year.”
Problems with the building include poor environmental control, which is detrimental to the storage of books and uncomfortable for students and staff.
All the floors can’t support the heavy load of books, and files and some of the old stacks are a “chimney in a fire,” Schockmel said.
Schockmel said this project has been affectionately titled “The Renaissance of the Merrill Library,” and he hopes it will help bring back some of the legacy of the old building.