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THE SPOTLIGHT
March, 1971
Spelman library
4 We don’t get
By Wanda Smalls
Mrs. Mexico Micklebury, Spelmah librarian,
complains that she does not get enough cooper
ation from the college faculty in her efforts to
build up the Quarles Memorial Library on the
first floor of Giles Hall.
“We don’t get enough orders for books from
teachers,’ Mrs. Micklebury said. “Three-fourths
of the Spelman faculty never step into this li
brary. They send their students to Emory and
other places for books and materials.”
Mrs. Micklebury said she wishes more teachers
would just come into the library to see what is
available and suggest what is needed. Right now,
she said, the bulk of the ordering is left up to
the library staff.
Mrs. Micklebury said she gets more orders
from Spelman students than from faculty mem
bers.
Mrs. Micklebury came to Spelman in 1943 when
the library was a' mere reading room in the base
ment of Laura Spelman Rockefeller Hall.
She has other duties outside the library. She
is a member of about seven campus committees
and advisor to the freshman class and the Grand
daughters Club.
Mrs. Micklebury coordinates the annual Thanks
giving Day Rally and teaches a class in children’s
literature.
Mrs. Micklebury said her extra duties take up
a lot of time, but she said she does not neglect
student needs in the library.
“Any direct request from an individual student
takes precedence over anything else,” she said.
Miss Hulda' Wilson is the assistant librarian.
She also has duties outside the library. She is an
adviser to the freshman class and a member of
a campus committee.
Mrs. Micklebury said the purpose of the Spel
man library is not to supplement Trevor Arnett
Library at Atlanta University. “Undergraduate
students have special individual needs which
their own college should provide,” she said.
Trevor Arnett was developed in 1932 with
graduate research in mind.
A summer, 1970 count showed a total of 33,781
volumes of circulation and reference books in
Spelman’s library. The library subscribes to
about 100 periodicals.
The Spelman library occupies several rooms
in Giles Hall. The largest is the circulation-ref
erence room. There is a periodical room and a
listening and viewing room where students may
view films and listen to and record tapes and
cassettes.
The Special Collections Room houses the Afro-
American Collection, the Margaret Nabrit Curry
Collection on Women, the Economics Collection of
the Joint Council on Economic Education and the
microfilm collection.
The library’s 1970-71 budget is $41,000. This
total is allocated for books, periodicals, salaries,
office supplies and telephone service.
The library has received a Title II Health, Edu
cation and Welfare grant for the past four years.
Its value has been reduced, however, from $8,000
four years ago to $1,300 this year.
The Undergraduate Program in Social Welfare
also gives the library money each year for books
enough orders
in the area of sociology and social work.
The library has a $1,000 grant from Sears, Roe
buck and Co. This firm requested, but did not de
mand, that the money be spent for books and ma
terials of interest in business and marketing.
The microfilm collection is a gift of the 3M
Company. The firm gave the library two reader-
printers, a three-year supply of copying materials
and the film, a large part of which is from the
Shromburg Collection of Negro Literature, New
York City.
Students may copy as many pages of the film
needed free of charge. After the present supply
of paper and fluid is used, students may be
chargri for this srvice.
In 1963 Mrs. Micklebury did a study of all the
undergraduate libraries' in the Atlanta Univer
sity Center. She found all of them inadequate for
the number of students enrolled at each school.
She sent her finding to President Albert Man-
ley requesting that all the libraries be combined
into one joint effort to better serve the under
graduate needs of the Center.
Dr. Manley replied that this plan was not pos
sible. He did, however, take her suggestion to the
Center-wide Council of Presidents. The result
wa's a feasibility study in 1966 by Dr. A. Khul-
man, director emeritus, Joint University Libraries
of Nashville, Tenn.
After thoroughly examining the history, bud
gets, services, facilities, space and special features
of each library in the A.U. Center, Dr. Kuhlman
also found the individual libraries inadequate
and suggested that some drastic changes be made.
But these changes are still in the talking stage.
Mrs. Micklebury said she feels that Dr. Khul-
man’s study will be out of date before it is even
completed. Meanwhile she must work to improve
and build the collection already in the Spelman
Library.
Mrs. Micklebury faces the problem of books
stolen and books checked out and never returned.
She admits that there is no system to prevent
stealing from the library.
She has given some thought to installing a
turnstile, but this would cut deep into finances.
She also says that since the library occupies an
entire floor of Giles Hall, this system would be
difficult. The Giles Hall floor has three entrances
from the stairwells.
Mrs. Micklebury is more disturbed, however,
about books checked out and never returned. She
has attempted to work with the Dean of Instruc
tion to get back the missing volumes.
Mrs. Micklebury said last year Dr. O. W.
Eagleson, then Dean of Instruction, circulated a
list of overdue books stipulating that unless books
were returned, seniors would not graduate ahd
grades would be withheld from others.
“Only seniors returned their books,” she said,
“and everybody else got their grades.”
Mrs. Micklebury said she asked for more staff
assistants to help prevent stealing from the li
brary. She was given two full-time workers, but
her student help was cut back.
Last year, 25 students worked in the Spelmah
library. This year there are only 15. Students are
paid on the work-study plan, but usually confer
from teachers’
with Mrs. Micklebury before they are hired.
This year, because of a drastic cut-back in
funds, the library was without student help all of
September.
Melba' Varner, a senior, has worked in the Spel
man library since last year. She feels that stu
dents who work in the library should be better
equipped to aid students who come to them for
help.
“Student workers should have a specialized
training period,’ Melba said. “They should know
all parts of the library, not just the part they are
assigned to.’
Melba’s job is to catalog books and audio-visual
aids. She is sometimes asked to work other jobs
when another staff member does not show up.
She admits that she is not properly trained to help
students in all parts of the library.
The Quarles Memorial Library was named for
Rev. Frank Quarles, commonly known as Father
Quarles, the founder and pastor of Friendship
Baptist Church. He worked closely with Misses
Sophia Packard and Harriet Giles in the estab
lishment of Spelman Seminary, now Spelman
College.
Miss Florence M. Read, president emeritus of
Spelman, recalls the development of the Quarles
Library in her book, “The Story of Spelman Col
lege.”
Miss Read wrote that Miss Packard realized
that the first floor of Fa'ckard Hall had inade
quate space for the growing student body. In
1920 plans were made to move to the south end
of the ground floor of Laura Spelman Rockefel
ler all.
The move was made swiftly “without interrupt
ing academic work.” Miss Read writes:
“So on Monday afternoon at 3:30, March 26,
1928, after announcement of the procedure in
chapel that morning, the big bell rang. The stu
dents and teachers assembled at the front en
trance of Packard Hall formed in line, moved to
and through the old library room. Books were
taken from the shelves in order, placed in arms
held out to receive them.
“Then out by the south door under the guid
ance of-a’ few student captains, the procession in
single file, led by president and dean, walked
across the campus (by the curving sidewalk, of
course!) to the more commodious quarters which
had previously been made suitable for a library.
“There the books were placed on their proper
shelves, which had already been numbered and
classified to receive them. The process was then
repeated until in two hours, approximately 8,000
books had been transferred onto the shelves in
the new quarters; and the library was used by the
students that very evening.”
As absurd as this story may sound today, per
haps this procedure would have been practical
a few years ago when the Quarles collection was
moved again to Laura Spelman Hall during the
renovation of Giles Hall.
At that time the books were moved by Buildings
and Grounds workers, and numerous volumes
were last in the move. Mrs. Micklebury said stu
dents from Morehouse College were hired to trans
port the volumes and some of the books never
reached their destination.
Spelman dedicates
new dining hall
Memories of the past hailed the dormitory and dining area — it
pirations of the future as Spel- was an inanimate structure that
May 1 is deadline
for McGill grants
mail College came together in
Sister’s Chapel on a rainy Sun
day morning to briefly recall and
bury the past burning of Morgan
Hall and to pull from its fertile
ashes, a new temporary build
ing.
The dedication and ribbon-cut-
ting ceremony was highlighted
with profiles and reflections by
Sheila Sha'w, a former resident
of Morgan Hall, Mr. Dennis
Jones, business manager and Mrs.
Naomi Chivers, Dean of Stu
dents.
Sheila told of the home life
in Morgan. She expressed the
warmth and closeness of the res
idents. According to Sheila,
Morgan was more than just a
possessed life.
Mr. Jones told of the renova
tions that were taking place at
the time of the fire. He also gave
a financial report of the losses
in the Morgan Hall tragedy.
Dean Chivers spoke of the
fire from a personal point of
view. She told of how she became
aware of the fire and its mass
consumption of Morgan Hall.
It was these profiles and re
flections that led Dr. Manley to
say in his dedicatory address
that “all had been said.”
After the dedicatory prayer
and the Spelman Hymn, Dr. Man-
ley led the audience to the new
building where he cut the rib
bon and dinner was served.
Glee clubs
to perform
with orchestra
The Spelman and Morehouse
Glee Clubs will perform with the
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra' in
a concert version of opera
May 27-30, at the Atlanta Civic
Center.
The glee clubs will sing to
the music of Beethoven’s “Fi
delia.”
This performance with the At
lanta Symphony will be a first
for the Spelman group. Spelman
Glee Club Director Dr. Aldrich
Adkins hopes this performance
with the Symphony group will
be the beginning of a tradition.
Robert Sha'w is director of
the Atlanta Symphony Orches
tra.
Aspiring young Southern news
papermen and women in need of
financial assistance to attend the
last two years of college have
until May 1 to apply for Ralph
McGill Scholarship Fund grants
for the 1971-72 academic year.
The Ralph McGill Scholarship
Fund was created to honor the
late Ralph Emerson McGill, pub
lisher of The Atlanta Constitu
tion.
The Fund’s Advisory Commit
tee has stipulated that grants
will be made in amounts not to
exceed $1,500 for a full academic
year of college for each recipient.
Awards will be based on jour
nalistic interest and aptitude
plus need.
Jack W. Tarver, president of
The Atlanta Journal and Consti
tution and chairman of the
Fund’s Advisory Committee, said
the group agreed that the amount
of each grant would be based on
the individual’s own financial
requirements.
Grants are available to quali
fied young men and women
whose roots lie in the fourteen
Southern states. Tarver said the
Advisory Committee will also
act as the selection committee.
He said applicants must show an
“abiding interest” and apitude
for newspaper writing ahd edit
ing and successful applicants
must convince the committee
that they are determined . to
make a career of newspapering.
Applicaiton blanks may be ob
tained from the Ralph McGill
Scholarship Fund, Box 4689, At
lanta, Georgia’ 30302.