METU Library

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In 1956, ODTÜ Library began to serve with 50 books donated by the United Nations, in a 6m² room of a building belonging to the General Directorate Pension Fund, on the Milli Müdafaa Street. In October 1957, The Library Staff was composed of Furuzan Olşen and Solmaz İzdemir who had received their post-graduate education in the field of librarianship in the USA. ODTÜ moved to its temporary campus behind the Turkish Grand National Assembly in 1957, and the Library was moved there in December of the same year. On 4 January 1958, Natelle Isley, who is an UNESCO expert, was appointed as the director of the Library to ensure that the Library is organized in a contemporary sense. The main principles related to the organization of the Library have been determined and transferred into practice. In March 1958, the Library of Congress Classification System was decided to be implemented. With this application, ODTÜ Library has become the first library to use the system which is utilised by many universities and research libraries in our country today. On 25 July 1959, UNESCO expert Donald A. Redmond was appointed as the director of the Library. In this period, the organization of library services was carried out. UNESCO Specialist D. R. Kalia, who was appointed as the third director of the Library in 1961, worked until 1962. Kalia, visited the university libraries in Turkey, and prepared a report on the status of the libraries. The idea that the university should have a central library in the campus was raised in the time of Kalia and was accepted on October 1961. On 9 July 1962, the fourth and last UNESCO expert, William W. Bennett, appointed as the library director. In this period the Library grew rapidly. Paul Wasserman, Library Director of Cornell University, came to Turkey in September 1962, and prepared a report examining the development of ODTÜ Library. In this way, a financial support of 30,500 USD was provided to the Library under the AID/Cornell project. The Library was moved to its present settlement on September 15, 1963 and continued its activities in a building of the Faculty of Architecture until the library building was constructed. Under the leadership of Behruz Çinici, the architectural studies of the central library building were started in 1964, foundation of the building were laid on 03.01.1966 and completed on 30.06.1967. The library was moved from its location in the Faculty of Architecture to the present new building. Thus, the first campus library that serves according to the standarts of contemporary library science was established in our country. For more https://lib.metu.edu.tr/more-

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https://hdl.handle.net/11511/112595

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METU Bellek, Album

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