Inside Voices: Celebrating Preus Library’s 40 years of service

A Preus Library alumni gathering will be held during Homecoming week to celebrate the library’s 40th year. There are a total of three events at the library over Homecoming week:an artist exhibit, a library staff reunion and an all-library alumni reunion.

A Homecoming reception will be held Oct. 3 for any and all alumni involved with the library.

“The library expects lots of former student workers, former librarians and other friends of the library,” Jane Kemp, library department head, said. “We have a target audience of 240 alumni.”

This is a great opportunity for students to meet and get to know the people who have worked in Preus for its 40 long years of service. Raza Janjua (‘12) is looking forward to the reception despite not being a student worker.

“The Preus Library is awesome,” Janjua said. “I’ve always liked libraries, and I really like the one here at Luther. I want to meet the people who have helped run it for the past 40 years.”

Luther held a remembrance of Saint Jerome, the patron saint of librarians and libraries as well as archivists, translators and encycolpedists, Sept. 30 with an artist reception for David Esslemont.

Esslemont is an award-winning British artist, designer, printer, bookbinder and publisher who will exhibit his books and art in Preus Library.

The day of St. Jerome is celebrated as a feast day in the Catholic Church and as a day of commemoration in Lutheran churches.

Previous to Preus library, Luther stored its books in Koren, the first building to have a space specifically designed to store books. Koren only held 100,000 books and was set up to accommodate just 300 students.

The new building had a combined cost of $2.2 million and was built on Nustad field, the former site of football and track events. The building was planned to be roughly 103,000 square feet and have a dynamic design.

Today, the building includes over 900 study spaces and is large enough to accommodate 2,500 students.

Preus remembers its 40 years through these Homecoming events, held, appropriately, on the library lawn. Bring your inside voice and help commemorate the building over Homecoming week.