The GI Bill

Article in the Review, August 25, 1944 showing the pressure on the library to improve student access to collections.

Article in the Review, October 11, 1946.  In that year, more than 800 vets - including 69 married couples housed in a trailer colony called "Botany Lane" - boosted Oberlin College enrollment to unprecedented levels.

Service men were forced to study in the student lounge.  The broader student body is asked not to use study space in the library unless they required library materials.

In addtion to making room for these more mature students, many of the of the old controls on expected behaviour were challenged and liberalized as this Review article from January, 1949 shows.  The smoking lounge was located on the main level to the left of the stairway.

The Circulation Desk in 1948, located directly opposite the main stairway. Behind this room lay the card catalog room with 2400 drawers containing about 1,500,000 cards (1955 figures) providing access to the library's holdings.  This is room is now called the "Fowler Room."  Doors at the rear of the "Fowler Room" provided access to the Bibliography Room where staff, advanced students and researchers could find the catalogs of world famous libraries such as the Library of Congress, the British Museum, the Biblioteque Nationale, and various specialized bibliographies.

A wall now separated the north alcove off, creating what is now the "Fowler Room," from the main reading room, as seen in this picture in 1948.

After a snowfall 1949.