The history of the Aquinas College Library can be traced back to 1931, when Catholic Junior College (CJC) opened in downtown Grand Rapids. At that time, the collection was developed partly by donation and partly by purchase, and in 1933-34 the total expenditure on materials was $397, with 6,128 books on the shelves.

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After becoming a four-year college, the College purchased an apartment complex on Library Street, near the Ryerson Library (now Grand Rapids Public Library Main). A brigade of students carried boxes of books from the CJC building to rooms of quaint shapes and sizes in the west wing. The new library included additional shelving, improved lighting, and two work rooms.

In 1945, when the college expanded by purchasing the Robinson Road campus, the library moved into the main floor of the Holmdene building. Library services grew to include a larger staff: a librarian and full-time assistant. Student workers were paid $0.65-0.75 per hour. Ten years later, when the new Administration Building (AB) opened, the library relocated there on two floors of the west wing. The sisters residing on campus spent several evenings reshelving reference books to complete the move; circulating books were in stacks on the floor above. The library added evening hours and received financial assistance from a robust Friends of the Library organization. Building up the collection proceeded gradually and then dramatically with a grant of $10,000 from the Kellogg Foundation.

 

By the 1960s, the library had outgrown its quarters, and in 1970 the Task Force on the Learning Resource Center recommended a reorganization to increase space. Their plan was to move the entire library to the second floor of the Academic Building. Four years later, after a $500,000 renovation, the Woodhouse Learning Resource Center was dedicated in honor of two long-time supporters of the college, C. Arthur and Marguerite Woodhouse. Users gained the benefit of more space, plus additional listening and viewing stations.

 

Although the new Woodhouse Library was an improvement, faculty, students, and library staff continued to dream of a larger, stand-alone space. Meanwhile, a grant of $350,000 from the Grand Rapids Foundation provided funds to automate the card catalog, which increased the accessibility of materials to users in the early 1990s.

 

In 2002, under the direction of then President Harry Knopke, a Library Building Committee was formed. After the committee explored other college libraries and solicited input from the Aquinas Community, English Professor Gary Eberle, a member of the committee, suggested adapting and expanding the existing Jarecki Lacks building to serve as the new library. This suggestion was adopted and philanthropists Ralph and Grace Hauenstein, along with many other donors, generously contributed funds for the renovation and addition. Construction began in 2005. The library moved into its spacious new building, which doubled the space of the old building to 40,000 square feet, in September 2006.

 

(Adapted from Sister Jean Milhaupt’s history of the library)