50th Anniversary Press/Media

Pius XII Memorial Library Celebrates 50 Years!!

When SLU was founded in 1818, the Library was known as “the rarest in the West” because of its significant collection of scholarly and research materials. In the 1950’s, Vatican Film manuscripts were microfilmed at a cost of $350,000 and was the largest humanities project in history at that time. This project was the impetus for creating Pius Library – the first library-only building on campus.

SLU President Father Reinert and SLU alum George W. Strake met with U.S. President Eisenhower to report on the progress of the new Pius XII Memorial Library in 1954.  “The establishment of the Pius XII Memorial Library will interest millions of Americans, for the collection (i.e., the Vatican Film Library and the VFL microfilms) as one of the world’s primary sources of information of Western thought. Access to it will be immensely valuable to all those who wish to delve more deeply into the fundamentals of our civilization.”  -- letter from Eisenhower to Reinert (2 Dec. 1954).

Since opening on May 18, 1959, Pius Library has absorbed 4 important collections: The Divinity Library (150,000+ volumes), the Social Work Library (3,500 volumes), the Center for Urban Programs Library (3,000 volumes), and the Parks College Library (about 50,000 volumes).

Today Pius Library is home to over 1.4 million volumes and now includes a Café, two writing centers, the University Testing Center, the Center for Teaching Excellence, and the University Libraries Digitization Center for making rare materials accessible electronically. Preeminent faculty librarians and staff assist and teach students, faculty, and researchers from around the world how to search for, locate, and analyze quality information.

Throughout 2008 and into 2009 we will be celebrating Pius Library’s heritage with a variety of events and exhibits. We are also continuing significant steps in a long line of improvements needed to enhance the Libraries at SLU. Join with us as we work toward our vision of creating dynamic learning environments where  students and faculty discover and develop new ideas through the libraries virtual and physical spaces where information and the resources for scholarship are readily available.

Newsletters:
July 2008
September 2008
October 2008
November 2008
December 2008
January 2009
February 2009
March 2009