The Trinity University Library opened shortly after 1869 in Tehuacana, Texas. When the university moved to the Waxahachie campus in 1902, the library was placed on the fourth floor of the Administrative building. The books were placed in no particular order and there was not a cataloging system in use. In 1942, the library was relocated to San Antonio, the new home of Trinity University. Located on Stadium Hill, The George Storch Memorial became the new location for the library in 1949. This building became the main area for information on the humanities. Information on the sciences and special collections were contained in the Chapman Graduate Library which began in 1963. In 1971, the university decided that all of the libraries needed to be consolidated into one location. The Elizabeth Coates Library opened on March 20, 1979. It consisted of two floors. In 1983, another level of the library was completed. In 1997, the fourth and final level was completed.
The first librarian at Trinity University was Theresa Roberts Simms, wife of a Trinity professor. She began to arrange the books and offered help to students. When Trinity University merged with the University of San Antonio, their library collections were combined. Mrs. Simms, along with the help of students, recatalogued the entire library. Mrs. Simms was the only full time library worker until the end of 1946 when the library staff was expanded.
On the staircase from the third floor to fourth floor, there is a unique collage mural by James Sicner. He began the project on March 1, 1979. The mural was completed on September 30, 1983. It is fifteen feet by eighty feet which makes it the largest of its kind in the world.
When the library was first established, it had two hundred and fifty volumes. In 2006, there were over 927,000 volumes. The library has also expanded by adding digital media to its vast collection. Today, the library is large and undergoes expansion often. The history of the Trinity University library is definitely one of interest and is constantly being added to.
On the staircase from the third floor to fourth floor, there is a unique collage mural by James Sicner. He began the project on March 1, 1979. The mural was completed on September 30, 1983. It is fifteen feet by eighty feet which makes it the largest of its kind in the world.
When the library was first established, it had two hundred and fifty volumes. In 2006, there were over 927,000 volumes. The library has also expanded by adding digital media to its vast collection. Today, the library is large and undergoes expansion often. The history of the Trinity University library is definitely one of interest and is constantly being added to.
Elizabeth Coates Library by Laura Kalb is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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