# Presentation: 730365

## MERGING LIBRARIES – THE IMPACT ON GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS -THE SAN JOSE STATE UNIVERSITY EXPERIENCE

**Notes:**
My talk today is specifically related to merging government publications department with reference services at San Jose State.  Two compelling factors caused the merger. The first was a report from the university administration for all units, including academic ones, to streamline their operations. The second was the announced merger of the university library with the public library of San Jose. My talk will focus on the joining of the two libraries and give the background that led up to this merger, and then talk about what has happened to government publications.  Finally, I have added a bibliography on merged government publications services for your information.

## Slide 2

**Notes:**
SAN JOSE STATE UNIVERSITY – A BRIEF HISTORY
San Jose State University has been a quiet leader in higher education since its inception in 1857. The school began in San Francisco as Minn’s Evening Normal School with the emphasis on educating teachers for the community that was developing in a post-gold rush California. The city school was renamed the California Normal School when it bcame a state institution in 1862, making it the first state institution for higher education in California. In 1870, the college moved to San Jose.  In 1974, the college was renamed  San Jose State University and participates as a part of the 23 California State University system. The university has been growing that today there are over 27,000 FTE students, with almost 1700 faculty, that offer over 134 different bachelor’s and master degree programs. Twenty years ago, the university administration recognized that the area, which became known as Silicon Valley, was starting to grow at a phenomenal pace. This growth impacted the university in the increased enrollment and the demand by faculty for more research resources in the library. The library facility needed to expand but the original library building, the Wahlquist library was inadequate for expansion. So in 1982, the university opened a second library, the Clark library to house the growing research collection. Currently the library is composed of four major buildings and collections, the Clark library which houses materials from 1980 to present, Senter Road Storage Facility which houses materials pre 1980, the John Steinbeck Special Collections Center and the Ira Brilliant Beethoven Center.

Today, SJSU provides courses to the master’s level, and recently began cooperative Ph.D. programs in Education and Engineering with the University of California system.  The university’s collaborative ventures have also included partnerships with the business community and most recently the unique partnership between the university library and the city of San Jose’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Library.

## Clark Library

## CARNEGIE SPONSORED 

**CARNEGIE SPONSORED **
**PUBLIC LIBRARY**
** ****OF SAN JOSE**

- 4TH and San Fernando

## Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library

**San Jose, California**

**Notes:**
SAN JOSE PUBLIC LIBRARY – A BRIEF HISTORY
The city of San Jose was founded in 1777. It served as the state’s first capitol in 1849.   According to the 2000 census the city is now the 3rd largest city in California. The public library in San Jose started in 1903 as a Carnegie funded library.  The original building was located on the corner of 4th and San Fernando. The building, like many Carnegie buildings, was not a good candidate for updating to meet the needs of a growing community. The building was torn down and sold to SJSU. In 1970, a new building was opened next to the city’s convention center.  In 1990, the library was renamed the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. library. 

##  Location of libraries 

**Notes:**
In 1996, two events impacted the SJSU library.  The first was the mandate given to all academic departments to streamline their operations.  During the self-study, the library decided that the public functions of government publications should be merged with the Reference department and the technical processing be reassigned to the Technical Services department.  The second major decision was a meeting between President Robert Caret of SJSU and Susan Hammer, mayor of San Jose. At one of their regular meetings, both expressed concerns about the future of their respective libraries.  Both libraries were facing space, wiring and general renovation problems.  SJSU had two buildings for the library collections, Wahlquist and Clark buildings. The university could not afford to build a new library to incorporate the demands of the new environment.  The CSU building list is such that a new library would be so far down the funding list, that unless there was some creative funding source, there would be no new library.  The public library was in a similar dilemma. The library is situated next to the Convention Center.  Both the Convention Center and the library were experiencing the need to grow. The library, besides needing to grow also needed to renovate to incorporate new wiring. Because of skyrocketing building and land costs, the city could not consider a new library. But the dilemma was there, both needed new libraries. 

## Senter Road Storage Facility

## SJSU Special Librarieson campus

**These collections were originally located in the **
**Wahlquist Library.**

## Reorganizationat SJSU

- 1. Public services of Government Publications located with Reference.
- 		Training of Reference staff
- 		Shelving went to Reference student 	workers
- 2. Technical Processing moved to Cataloging.

## Collection Decisions

- Weeding the Collection
- Retrospective Conversion
- Classification System Decision
- Collection Development Policies

## Site as of 9/21/02

- © 1998-2000 **Inet Architects, Inc.  **All rights reserved.

## The new Martin LutherKing, Jr. Library

**About the building: **
**Size: 475,000 sq. ft**
**8 floors, plus mezzanine & lower level**
**2 million volume capacity**
**Materials in 58 languages**
**Carrier Johnson, Executive Architect**

## Documentation

- Web Site: _[http://www.newkinglibrary.org/progress/two-2.html](http://www.newkinglibrary.org/progress/two-2.html)_
- Operating Agreements
- Memorandum of understanding (MOU)
- Summary of Public Hearings
- Public Forums
- Technical Team Findings

## Thank you!

- Sue Kendall
- Reference Department
- SJSU
- skendal2@email.sjsu.edu