All of you are most welcome here today as we celebrate the return to service of this great library building, the Bing Wing of the Cecil H. Green Library. My name is Michael Keller, and I am the Ida M. Green University Librarian, Director of Academic Information Resources, and Publisher of HighWire Press for Stanford.
After a decade of planning, consulting, demolishing then constructing, and finally re-activating, students and faculty have returned to this library to search, to read, to reflect, and to write. The satisfaction every member of the University Libraries staff feels on this occasion derives entirely from our services to our readers and to Stanford. Speaking for those of us who have been intensely involved in restoring this building behind me, known first as the Main Library, then as Green Library West, and now as the Bing Wing: our gratification arises as we observe these spaces, great and small, alive with readers morning, noon, and night. I should point out however that the work of activating a research library such as this one is never complete.
We gather here for a brief pause in our working lives to reflect on what this library has become and what it might become. Our program today features President Gerhard Casper, who, during his entire tenure, has dealt with the reconstruction of the campus and has been entirely clear in his direction to us to bring this library back into service. President Casper’s address is entitled "Who needs a library anyway?", a cogent question anytime, but particularly now in the infancy of the networked information age. Professor John Bender of English and Comparative Literature, as well as current chairman of the Academic Council Senate Committee on the Libraries and Professor Judith Goldstein of Political Sciences will share with you their thoughts on the re-opening of this library from their perspectives as scholars making heavy use of the libraries. Mr. Robert Bass, chairman of the Board of Trustees, will then accept the building back into service for Stanford. I will conclude with a few more remarks.
Gerhard’s query "Who needs a library?" prompts a brief excursion on a related question, "What is a library ?" Here is my answer to that question.
A library is a physical and virtual space where readers are free to confront sources from a panoply of disciplines, cultures and imaginations, sources in numerous languages, of all media, and from all periods of the history of the Earth. In the best of circumstances, competing opinions and interpretations are well represented in the physical and virtual collections on matters of concern, whether momentous or commonplace. A library is a collection of virtual and physical information resources, knowledge, and wisdom; its collections are organized and purveyed in reliable and consistent ways in order that readers may serendipitously and systematically discover and retrieve facts, ideas, and arguments they need for their own purposes. Librarians and their staff colleagues make it so. They select sources, provide intellectual access to them , interpret, distribute, and preserve them. Virtual and physical libraries are expressions of the work of library staff members for readers across centuries, thereby acting on behalf of generations of readers yet to come. Beyond the order of its physical and virtual collections, a library is a place where one can learn a heuristic sense of information: that is, the ability to navigate the wider chaos of sources and ideas, to apply various measures of validity and relevance to one’s findings, and to judge the utility of those findings harvested from the chaos.
A library is a safe place for ideas, even outrageous or heretical ones, to be stored and protected for repeated use, examination and testing. It is a place for the refreshment of the individual and collective intellect. People come to libraries, whether virtual or physical or both, to generate new ideas. A library is surely not the only place for such work, but one which by its aura, by its Gestalt stimulates, encourages, and nurtures thoughts and ideas. A library – any sort of library -- is thus a kind of an ongoing celebration of the ideas of mankind. A university library in particular is the heart of the university, representing in its forms and functions -- and especially in its collections -- the contrasts between chaos and order, system and serendipity, the known and the unknown, as well as fomenting adventures in teaching, learning, and research among these antipodes.
This library, the Bing Wing, is a metaphor of all libraries everywhere. It began its life as an idea around 1916. It went through numerous metamorphoses. Other structures were appended to it. The current edition you see before you is the product of all the preceding figures in its history and the history of Stanford. Many are those who contributed to this edition, the Bing Wing. Let me single out a few who have had significant roles in this re-birth, this incarnation. Please hold your applause recognizing the people I am about to single out until the end of this recital.
Gerhard Casper decided to proceed with the restoration and, trusting in his librarians and architects, convinced a great many friends of Stanford that the building should be restored. He and Condoleezza Rice, provost from 1993 to this year, on the one hand demanded prudence, care, and creativity in this particular restoration project, but also supported us especially in allocating the University’s resources to the project.
University Architect David Neuman and his colleague Ruth Todd, who was responsible for the historic preservation aspects of the building, deserve and get our thanks. These two guided, shepherded, and survived with us the numerous alarums and excursions of a project of this sort.
Speaking of surviving, Peter Devereaux and Ron Briggs of the firm Fields and Deveraux of Santa Monica, the architects on the project, succeeded The Architects Collaborative, which went bankrupt in April of 1995. Ron Briggs practically lived on the site for the past several years, though his home is in Los Angeles. We thank them both very much for their accomplishments embodied here and for their sacrifices.
Stanford Hughes, of the prize-winning San Francisco firm of Brayton and Hughes, was the designer of the building’s interiors; it is obvious from the results how very successfully his taste and judgement have been applied. It has been a special pleasure to work with Stanford Hughes.
Deputy University Librarian Kären Nagy, and her predecessor in space planning for the Libraries, Sarah Williamson, along with Don Intersimone, our manager of facilities planning, have organized, represented, prodded, and overseen the millions of details inherent in realizing the complex architectural program we devised for the Bing Wing. In their work they were supported with terrific enthusiasm and efficiency by Dennis Cruzada and Martha Smith among others.
Michael Rosenthal, former director of Stanford’s capital planning and management group, along with Barbara Weber and Susan Calderon, both project managers from that group, traveled with us in this journey, assisting us and representing the university ably in high and low times. Curtis Feeny and his colleagues have taken up the mantle from Mike Rosenthal and are working with us effectively to conclude the project.
Once the construction of the building was underway, the firm of Nova Partners was employed to be the project managers representing Stanford on a minute-to-minute basis. Stanford has benefited enormously in this labor from David Marks, Bill Hammerson, and Arlun Chun of that firm. They have my gratitude and admiration.
The building’s structural engineer was Paul Rodler of the firm Forell/Elsesser. He and our seismic engineering consultant, Craig Comartin, provided the specifications and oversight to make the Bing Wing able to withstand very serious earthquakes in the future, taking into account the Northridge and Kobe events. We thank them for the consistent attention and for the application of their much needed expertise.
There were a host of engineers and sub-contractors responsible for the mechanical, electrical, and fire suppression systems of the Bing Wing. Principal among them for the sheer beauty of their craftsmanship is the firm of Cupertino Electrical Contractors. We thank all of them.
Some of you may know that this library, as an organization, is proud to be responsible for a lot of Stanford’s academic computing services. In this work, we have fine partners in our colleagues in the Networking and Telecommunications group who have helped in designing the network infrastructure for the Bing Wing. On the library’s staff, Jane Adams has been concerned with the network infrastructure as well and for bringing the network in the building to life. Given that practically every seat is wired for power and telecommunications, this has been no small job. Jane has done it extremely well, and I thank her for it.
The Bing Wing is a complex physical space to navigate. Our graphics consultant was Chuck Byrne, and our graphics design agency was Kate Keating and Associates. It has been invigorating and fun to deal with them. Their work makes the building accessible, and I would say that some of the reason for the rapid discovery by many students of the nooks and crannies of the building is due to their signs and way-finding diagrams around the building.
The Academic Council Senate Committee on the Libraries has been a constant source of advice and comfort. The chairs of the committees most involved since the need for the project arose are Professors David Riggs, Keith Baker, Carl Gotsch, Stephen Boyd, and John Bender. To them and all the faculty and students who have served on the C-Lib, for their comment on our plans, aspirations, and programs: thank you! You have helped us balance the numerous inputs from around the campus and beyond in these challenging years.
Our technical services division staff under the leadership of Catherine Tierney and that of the Library Systems Office under Jerry Persons have added and altered millions of bibliographic records for collections moving back into and around the Green Library complex. Their work makes it possible for our readers to locate books intellectually and physically. Rarely seen and thus rarely recognized, I pay tribute, high tribute to their consummate professionalism and magnificent service
I often say that the staff of the Libraries is an army of generals. From the wonderful shipping room crew to the good people working in our publications office, from the portal monitors to the subjects specialists in all of our campus libraries, each staff member has contributed to the Bing Wing and its possibilities. I thank you each and every one.
Many, many other Stanford staff members and outside contractors have added their expertise. I should like to single out for appreciation among that crowd the marvelous colleagues we have in John Ford and his staff in the Office of Development. They took on this project with understanding and sympathy and delivered most persuasively to the Stanford family and friends the important message which Mel Lane articulated very early in this game. Mel’s few, but characteristically direct words were: "a great university must have a great library; let’s re-build!" The sum of all these sorts of efforts resolve to the Bing Wing.
Please now recognize all of these good people.
[applause]
This reconstruction project over so many years has consumed substantial resources. Numerous friends of the University have contributed those resources and will be recognized by name in this event. Gerhard will mention some, while I will mention others now . Once again, may I ask that you hold your applause recognizing these superb friends of Stanford until I have concluded this section of my remarks.
First, we are delighted to cite the very significant contribution of the Federal Emergency Management Agency of the United States to the restoration of this culturally, historically, and functionally important facility; then …
More or less in alphabetical order I am pleased to recognize and thank --
Several anonymous donors
189 donors through the Associates of the Stanford University Libraries,
The Barchas Family,
Mr. and Mrs Richard Bingham,
Charles and Frances Field,
Barbara Denning Finberg and her brother Robert Denning,
Barbara Ann Hillman,
Richard Hooper,
Mr and Mrs George D. Jagels,
the Jonsson Family Foundation,
the family of Eugene McDermott,
J. Burke Knapp,
Lisa Peck Lindelef,
Jane Sommerich,
the Rogers and Kern families in memory of Richard H. Shainwald,
Mrs. Margaret K. Schink,
Charles and Mary Tannenbaum (she of the class of 1936),
Mr. And Mrs J. Fred Wentz,
Hal and Betty Jo Fitger Williams,
The Wells Fargo Bank and finally …
The Stanford Bookstore under the leadership of Peggy Mendelson, Prof. David M. Kennedy and William C. Lazier …
All have contributed meaningfully to this restoration.
To all of them, we express our deepest thanks
[applause]
It is now my pleasure to step aside for President Gerhard Casper who has powerfully transformed Stanford in every realm imaginable. His lasting contributions to the University will include, of course, the many new facilities on campus, due only in part to the seismic events a decade ago this week. Gerhard’s influence on Stanford programs of teaching, learning, and research are now quite visible, but will be understood over time as truly profound.
[introduction of John Bender]
John Bender is the Jean G. and Morris M. Doyle Professor in Interdisciplinary Studies. He is chair of the Academic Senate Committee on the University’s Libraries and has held numerous leadership positions in both the English and Comparative Literature Departments. He has a B.A. from Princeton University and a Ph.D. from Cornell University. He has been on the Stanford faculty since 1967. John’s fields of research are 18th century British and European Literature, Visual Arts, and Literary Theory. His work has focussed upon a number of the eighteenth-century writers including Swift, Defoe, Richardson, Fielding, Goldsmith, Adam Smith, Bentham, and Godwin. He has worked as well on women's writing of the period's last decades, and on the French novel. His special concerns include the relationship of literature to the visual arts, to philosophy and science, as well as to the sociology of literary production and critical theory. Among many articles, editions, and anthologies, John Bender is the author of Spenser and Literary Pictorialism (1972) and Imagining the Penitentiary: Fiction and the Architecture of Mind in 18th-Century England (1987), which received the Gottschalk Prize of the American Society for 18th-Century Studies. He is currently working on the relationship of the novel to 18th-century science and on the significance of impersonal narration in the novel. John is a true denizen of the library, occupying with a fierce sense of ownership a prime study in Green Library East.
John Bender's Dedication Remarks
[introduction of Judith Goldstein]
Judith L. Goldstein is Professor of Political Science, Chair of the International Relations Program and Chair of the International Policy Studies Program. She has an undergraduate degree from UC Berkeley, a Masters of International Affairs from Columbia University and a PH.D. from UCLA. She has been on the faculty at Stanford University since 1981. Goldstein’s area of research is political economy with an emphasis on trade policy. Her work includes Ideas Interests and American Trade Policy(1993); Ideas and Foreign Policy(with Robert Keohane (1994) and numerous articles. Her recent work centers on international institutions and international law and their affects on elected officials. Supported by funds from the National Science Foundation, she has organized a series of conferences on "Domestic Politics and International Law" and is editing, as well as contributing to, a special issue of International Organization (2000). Her current project is a book on the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and the new World Trade Organization. She is a vigorous user of the libraries holdings of government and non-governmental organization’s documents.
Professor Judith Goldstein's Remarks
[introduction of Robert Bass]
It is an honor to introduce Robert Bass, chairman of the Stanford Board of Trustees. He earned a B.A. at Yale, a small university on the banks of the Quinnipiac River in Connecticut, and then came to Stanford to earn an MBA in 1974. He leads one of the most successful and aggressive investment groups in the United States, Keystone Incorporated. The company invests in a wide range of industries and business interests including broadcasting and publishing companies, hotels, banks, and petrochemical companies. Mr. Bass is renown for buying businesses facing trouble and turning them into profitable companies.
Robert and Anne Thaxton Bass are residents of Fort Worth, Texas and are actively involved in the Fort Worth community. They have aided development of the Fort Worth downtown area in numerous projects – renovating buildings, financing hospitals and museums, and contributing to local universities and high schools. Their foundation focuses upon funding human services -- especially to children and youth, health care, and medical organizations.
Mr. Bass joined the Stanford Board of Trustees in 1989 and was elected its chairman in 1996. His affiliation with the university’s many advisory and oversight committees began in 1975 as a trustee of the Graduate School of Business. Since then he has served in 14 other official capacities ranging from the Stanford in Washington Council to the Hoover Institution Board of Overseers to the Stanford Associates Service Award Pin committee.
Robert and Anne Bass are significant donors to Stanford. Their $25M gift in the Centennial Campaign was used for research programs in the fields of medicine, science, engineering, and the humanities. They have endowed five professorships and four fellowships. The range of their Stanford interests is vast. Together they represent the essence of informed and diligent philanthropy.
Robert Bass has been an active chairman of the Board of Trustees, working closely with the President, the Provost, and the Deans in this time of revitalization and excitement at Stanford to advise and shape policies and directions at the highest level.
Robert Bass' Dedication Remarks
[conclusion]
I wish to add to Gerhard’s appreciation of four families who have led the way in the campaign to restore the Bing Wing.
To Mel and Joan Lane, to Greg and Dionne Peterson, to Nancy and Charles Munger, to Peter and Helen Bing -- for the entire body of readers now at Stanford and yet to come – thank you, thank you, thank you, and thank you again. Your leadership in this restoration project, as in so many other Stanford causes, is simply luminary.
In a moment, we will cut the ribbon you can see up the steps… While we are assembling up there, let me mention a few logistical matters.
After this re-dedication event, you are most cordially invited to prowl around the Bing Wing for a while. Members of the staff are posted to answer questions and to offer directions. Should you and yours desire a formal tour, there are times in the next few days when members of the Library Associates will be offering tours. There are schedules for such tours posted on the doors of the building, in the Stanford University website, and on the Library website. There first exhibit to be presented in the Peterson Gallery on the second floor of the Bing Wing is entitled "Building and Re-building, 1989-1999; collections and architecture for the Twenty-first century." The exhibit was prepared by our curators, Roberto Trujillo, the head of Special Collections, and Assunta Pisani, Associate University Librarian for Library Collections and Services. It was mounted by Becky Fischbach. The exhibit will be available for viewing from today through 12 January 2000 and you are most cordially invited to return often to see it.
There is a guest book in the Munger Rotunda for each of you to sign to mark this fine occasion. Please record your presence here.
Now, the five of us are going to cut this lovely red ribbon to open the library officially!
To those who come to the libraries in their academic quests,
To those who come in joy seeking inspiration,
To those who come in sorrow seeking solace,
Sympathy and greeting,
So have we done in our time.**
Welcome!
