Baxter Polk, left, became librarian in 1936 when the library occupied the third floor of Kelly (now Vowell) Hall, reached by this outside stairway. Book stacks were at the north end of the building and a reading room was at the south end. Some of the 12,000 volumes were stored in the basement under a trap door. When Polk started, he had four student assistants, taught four classes, and purchased and catalogued all new books.
When the library occupied the second floor of the Library and Administration Building, this small card catalog reflected the number of volumes available to researchers in the 1940s.
The burro, pick, and shovel seal of the Collegeof Mines was inlaid in the floor at the entrance to the library in the forties.
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