Creating A Multi-Media Library: A Case Study

STATEMENT on the creation of a multi-media library for an institution welcoming its first students in September 1971 and when the second floor slab is just being poured on a four-storied structure (only a portion of which will house the library initially) may seem presumptuous, if not downright absurd.However, because we believe we are deliberately bringing into being an integration of media and print services more often talked about than attempted, we are convinced that the slight risk of being labeled either presumptuous or absurd is irrelevant.The Evergreen State College is the first four-year public institution created in the state of Washington in this century.How did it come into being?A new four-year college was originally proposed by the presidents of the existing public institutions of higher education in 1964.Expressed and well-considered citizen concerns and the work of legislative committees and consultants preceded enabling action by the 1967 legislature.Early follow-up efforts included site studies which resulted in the purchase of a lovely 990-acre wooded campus on the Cooper Point Peninsula northwest of Olympia, the state capital.A quotation from an unpublished college document carries the flavor and urgency of the college's mandate: Perhaps most important was the mandate to the college by executive and Legislature for an innovative approach.Governor Evans declared the need for a "flexible and sophisticated educational instrument'' as opposed to the "vast and immobile establishment"; and expressed the need to "unshackle our educational thinking from