Architect's model of
Killam Library 1969
The Killam has seen a lot of changes since then. With a capacity for one million books (the collection at the time numbered just over 300,000), it was originally equipped with conference rooms, reading areas, telex equipment, “public typing rooms” and a “conduit structure” wiring each room to the Computer Centre in the basement. Now the Learning Commons, group study rooms, and most recently the Learning Incubator & Networking Centre are transforming the Killam to meet the needs of the 21st century while remaining true to its fundamental purpose as the knowledge hub of the campus.
As with all older building on campus, the Killam has its share of stories. Did you know, for instance, that the McMechan Auditorium was named after Archibald McMechan, who was an English professor from 1889 to 1933, and University Librarian from 1906 to 1931? Or that the Brazilian rosewood trim found throughout the building was chosen by President Hicks, a skilled cabinetmaker, who felt it would give the space an “expensive feeling”?
But the real stories about a library are found in the people who use it. Do you have a special memory or story about the Killam? Join the celebration by sharing them here. And please join us in person on Friday March 11 in the Killam lobby for birthday cake, coffee and a raffle for prizes!
Read more about the Killam Library in our Buildings of Dalhousie Illustrated History.
How many remember the large fish tank that used to be outside the Library Administration office? I do, because when I worked in Library Admin, I used to feed the fish on a daily basis. Who remembers when the tunnel flooded and books need to be dried out? What better way to dry them out then in the microwave. I remember names like John Miller, Louis Viagnois, Dorothy Cooke, Mr. Stringer, Shelagh Keene, Charles Armour and many more.
As a student back in the 80’s I always remember going to the Killam after my 4th year translation class in French. I had one 3 hour class a week at 9 in the morning and nothing again until 1 o’clock, so it was always my little oasis where I could get homework done for the next week. I enjoyed availing myself of all the different French-English dictionaries that the reference room held, and people were actually quiet in libraries – imagine! As a staff member with Dal my first job in 1986 was working at Learning Resources at the Killam. The atrium was open at that time and my office was just next to the MacMechan auditorium. We also had a “cutting edge” office next to us – the Microcomputer Purchasing Centre. It all seems like a million years ago now, but whenever I go to the Killam I still smell that same smell, and it will take me back to the days when I felt I had the world by the tail.
Wow! Forty years, and getting better rather than older.
As one who was “there at the beginning” and for a further 36 years, initially while resident in the basement near where the builders and Dal staff met to discuss building deficiencies to be remedied, it long impressed/depressed to recognize the almost 25 years it took to fix the leaks in the roof. Some may remain.
While many changes and improvements have been made the only windows in the basement continue to be those available from Microsoft.
Happy Birthday Killam Library Building! It was a great place to work, even for those underground.
Lou Vagianos, Mrs Cooke, Bill Birdsall, Bill Maes;ELizabeth Payne, Intab ALi; Harry Akins;Norman Horrocks, Bob Dawson,Fred Matthews,… A person could write a book, but might not be able to publish all of it!
In 1971, when the library first opened, the elevators had telephones in them ; reals telephones, with dials, and their own numbers, and a little note giving a number to dial for emergencies. You could dial out, but also, for a while, you could dial in. One day, when a group of education students, myself included, were in the elevator the phone rang. I picked it up, answered it, and then turned to the student next to me and said “It’s your mother.” “Yea, right” he responded, took the phone and said ” Fuck off Mom….Mom??? No…Mom…No…sorry no…I’didn’t…Know? No?”
At any rate, we had timed it so his mother could surprise him with a happy birthday call. We left him, happily???, riding up and down in the elevator, trying to apologies. Celtel’s certainly have taken some of the fun out of life.
The newly established School of Library Services,as it was then known, occupied rooms on the third floor of the Killam when the building first opened. Bob Dawson started up a bibliographic printshop under the auspices and on the premises of the Library School. The idea was that the School’s students should have the opportunity to learn letterpress printing to augment John Ettlinger’s course on the History of Printing. It subsequently moved to the basement, where Bob amassed a considerable collection of presses and type, including a replica wooden Gutenberg-style press which he built with Fred Matthews. John Ettlinger initially taught bookbinding,again with equipment constructed by Fred. The facilities were well-used by students and public alike and Bob would bend the ear of any passer-by who stuck a nose in the door and frequently recruit them to his printing classes. Joe Landry continued the tradition, and printers and bookbinders continued to gather in the Killam basement until the transfer of the Dawson Printshop to NSCAD.
I began my University career in 1977 working in the Circulation Department. On snowy days you could see the drifts by the entrance and feel the cold drafts.
We had tables designed to hold the yellow keypunched date due cards and all of the Clerks would sit around and interfile them.(you can still find these yellow cards in some of the books)In 1978 there were still key punch machines in the basement but as they broke down they became harder to use. Once the cards were key punched they would be filed by the many clerks. To determine if a book was overdue the boxes of filed cards would be run through a piece of machinery to pull out the correct punched card. Then the overdue notices were written out by hand and mailed. Those were the days.