Penn States first library collection consisted of approximately 1,500 volumes in agriculture and the sciences and was housed in Old Main, along with most other college facilities. The nineteenthcentury library was considered an auxiliary to study and by 1888 was open six hours a day. By the turn of the century the library had grown to nearly 20,000 volumes. The overcrowding finally was relieved by construction of the Carnegie Library, a gift of steel magnate and college trustee Andrew Carnegie. The library moved to what is now the Carnegie Building in 1904. The 50,000volumecapacity building had the beginnings of some special collections, including government documents and the Penn State Room. Departmental libraries in a number of the sciences also had been established by this time, and some continue today as our branch libraries. The collection eventually outgrew the building, which by 1940 contained three times as many volumes as the number for which the building was designed.

Address: 510 Paterno Library,University Park, PA 16802-1812
Telephone: 814-865-6368
Website: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/psul.html