Following the retirement of University Librarian Lee Zimmerman in mid-1967, second-in-command Richard Beck stepped in as acting university librarian.

Meantime, the library continued riding a wave of 1960s affluence and technological improvement, installing air conditioning that September — "just in time for winter," noted the Argonaut. As a result, the library began the ‘67/’68 academic year filled with the noise of jackhammers. "There is a contest going on to determine who can remain in the building the longest without going completely mad," added the Argonaut. "We must direct some pity on the long-suffering staff…employees have been seen running wild-eyed from the place, with ‘quiet’ signs tucked under their arms."

Also that year, UI workers replaced the 10-year-old library building’s plastic ceiling — a technological failure, because it buckled in heat — with ‘polycube’.

And that September, the library finally addressed its book-theft problem, in low-tech fashion, hiring someone to sit at the exit desk and check briefcases. Meantime, candy and soft-drink vending machines first appeared in the ground floor ‘smoking lounge’.

The Sixties also heralded an era of interlibrary cooperation, which continues to this day. Early 1968 saw an agreement between UI Library and the libraries of Idaho State University and Boise College giving students at any of the three campuses full student library privileges at all three institutions. Soon Lewis-Clark State College Library joined, too.

The departure of Zimmerman — who had made all decisions at the library — led to the formation of a new Faculty Council on Library Affairs, which brought together librarians and other faculty for matters of policy and procedure.

A year after Zimmerman’s departure, in June 1968, Warren Owens was hired as the new Director of Libraries. A native of Massena, NY, and raised in Battle Creek, MI, he had been director of libraries at Temple University from 1961 to 1968.

"We were quite comfortable with Warren from the start," recalled Beck. "He was intelligent, hard-working, willing to delegate authority and accept responsibility."

This period also saw increased involvement of librarians, including Owens, on university committees, a practice Zimmerman had not encouraged. This "fared well for the library as a whole," Beck said.

The library suffered a terrible loss in 1970 when humanities librarian George Kellogg, a Yale graduate whose reknowned Bookmark contributions had been vital, died of complications from a skiing accident.

Kellogg’s successor, humanities librarian Milo Nelson, took a keen interest in Ezra Pound, who was born in Hailey, ID, and in the early 1970s the library’s special collections unit began building a Pound collection. The collection grew to include first editions, signed copies, transcripts of FBI files on Pound, and a complete run of Paideuma. Some items were donated by Pound’s daughter, Princess Mary de Rachewitz of Italy, whom Nelson contacted.

Eventually, Nelson proposed that the library and English department sponsor an annual lecture series honoring Pound. Soon additional schools became involved (Foreign Languages, Communication, Art & Architecture, ASUI), along with private benefactors, and the guest lecturers included Buckminster Fuller (1977) and Marshall McLuhan (1978), among others, before the series ended in 1982.

At the beginning of 1975, the library replaced its bag-checking with a 3M automated security system that beeped and locked the gate whenever someone passed through without checking out his books. Costing $16,000, the system curbed the theft of hundreds of books each year.

Carpets were another matter. Although it makes for a quieter facility, carpeting had been considered an unaffordable luxury when the library was first built in 1957. In 1971, the library made a brief attempt to quell noise by piping background music into the lobby(!). Eventually, in 1979, carpet was laid on some floors — one room at a time — with income from the library’s vending machines.

Other events of the disco era: In January 1976, a main transformer blew, plunging the library into cold and darkness for half a week. The following month, eight librarians became the first to receive tenure. In June 1977, two librarians married each other. That October, the library bought 76,000 pounds of second-hand steel shelving capable of holding 175,000 books. And in December 1978, the library received the 754-volume personal library of longtime Moscow resident Kyle Laughlin, which included first editions of Washington Irving’s Astoria (1836), Alexander MacKenzie’s Voyages from Montreal (1801), and Alexander Ross’s Fur Traders of the West (1855).

Also in 1978, the library’s plain, wall-mounted suggestion box — a fixture since the late 1950s — was transformed into an arresting, self-standing hexahedral container raised on one point. The Cube has remained a lobby feature ever since, receiving complaints and suggestions both mundane and innovative, and posting responses (from librarians) on its impassive "face". Queries and responses also appeared in each Bookmark, and a digital version has been added to the library’s website.

Despite the library’s many high-tech and low-tech advances, the major goal remained an automated catalog to replace the card catalog. As it had grown, the card catalog had become gargantuan, as well as expensive — labor-intensive — to maintain, requiring the typing and filing of some 200,000 cards annually. "The card catalog is a complex tool, and the larger it grows, the more difficult it becomes to use," noted Owens. As well, "we have run out of space in which to accommodate its growth without expensive remodelling."

Computers had been finding their way into the library for years. Circulation functions were becoming computer-automated. December 1976 saw the library’s first publicly accessible computer installed in the Social Sciences division, for educational research. But the first real progress on the long road toward today’s Web-accessible online catalog came with the library’s joining the Washington Library Network (WLN) in July 1979. This added the library’s holdings to a computerized "union catalog," which contained the holdings of 60 libraries across the Pacific Northwest. Moreover, this catalog could be printed at regular intervals onto microfiche sheets, which were readable on a microfiche reader installed in the library’s lobby. From this point on, library staff began recording data about the library’s holdings on computer instead of on 3" by 5" cards. The days of the card catalog, which M. Belle Sweet had begun in 1909, were numbered. However, "becoming a WLN participant was, very simply, a matter of our survival," noted Owens.

The computer data were printed annually on microfiche cards, and fiche readers sprang up around the library. "Ficheing" for material provided library users with faster and more comprehensive book-searching. But it also bred some confusion. Many users didn’t understand the alphabet-soup location codes (i.e. "IdU" or "WaOE") and wrongly assumed that all the items listed on the fiches could be found in the UI Library (whereas many were available only from other libraries in the WLN system).

A few years were required for the library’s entire collection to be brought into the WLN system — a process known as "retrospective conversion," since newer items were included first, and older ones (particularly pre-1968) were then added over time. By the end of 1981, records for 60% of the library’s books and serials had been computerized, and by the late 1980s the process was complete. Thus for a long time, someone doing a thorough search had to look in multiple locations — the fiches for recent materials, the catalog for older materials, and fiche cumulative supplements for the most-recent materials.

The next stage came a year or so later, when the library was able to use the WLN catalog to generate its own "COM" (computer-output microfiche) catalog — a set of fiches listing only items within UI Library.

In 1987, WLN released its first CD-ROM "LaserCat" product. Pulling together the holdings of some 300 libraries in the Pacific Northwest, western Canada, and Alaska, LaserCat also boasted superior keyword searching capabilties. Of course, these standalone CD-ROM computers were themselves merely a precursor to today’s online catalogs, which are accessible at all times from any Web-connected computer in the world.

The early 1980s recession hit the library along with the rest of the country. Fiscal year 1980 saw the library’s budget frozen at the previous year’s level, while salaries increased 7%. The upshot was reductions in the book budget (including the cancellation of some journals) and the operating hours (especially weekend hours, which generated many complaints).

Fiscal year 1981 rebounded somewhat, and the hours of operation were restored. Nonetheless, the 1980s would witness steep increases in the costs of journal subscriptions, which would force academic libraries across North America to make tough choices.

February 1981 saw the library’s Interlibrary Loans department join the Ontyme Electronic Mail Service, which meant using dial-up email to receive and transmit ILL requests. "EMS has more capabilities than a Western Union TWX at a lower cost, is less expensive than a phone call, and is faster than the U.S. Mail," enthused humanities librarian Margaret Snyder in The Bookmark.

The library was designated an "official patent depository library" by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in October 1983, joining the ranks of 45 other such libraries across the country — and joining the University of Washington in Seattle as the only other PDL west of the Mississippi River and north of California. Thus UI Library became responsible for providing patent support services to libraries and businesses across Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and portions of eastern Washington and Oregon.

Meanwhile, the building was "bulging at the seams," Owens noted. Designed to accommodate 20 years’ growth, the structure was now approaching 30 years old and crowding was evident throughout — increasing numbers of books in storage; fewer and smaller study areas; staff work areas crowded to the point of inefficiency; and a chronic lack of space for new facilities. By 1985, library expansion space had become the university’s top capital-project priority. Nonetheless, "there is still a long road to travel — all uphill — until we will see ground being broken," Owens wrote in The Bookmark.

Indeed, the road would stretch beyond Owens’ tenure — he exited the highway in 1987, retiring after 18 years at the wheel. Eileen Hitchingham, a Baltimore native, became Dean of Library Services. Most recently she’d served at Oakland University in Michigan. "I’m very eager to be involved with both the automation and building expansion plans," she wrote in The Bookmark. Beck retired the following year, after 30 years with the library.

Early 1989 saw the library complete a survey of all UI faculty — 67% completed it — on attitudes toward, and assessment of, the library. One of the most frequent comments on the questionnaire was, "Why did you send it first class rather than through campus mail?" Among the highlights of the 54-page report: faculty were nearly unanimous that students should learn to use the library; the most important library services were deemed to be journals, followed by books, then self-service photocopiers, database searching, and orientation sessions for new faculty and students. As a result, UI librarians began a cooperative program with the English department to provide a few days’ instruction to all freshmen, as a component of English 104.

Despite its space shortage, the library made room for another service. Fall 1988 saw eight computers introduced for public use — four desktop models with printers, plus four hefty laptops that could be checked out from the Reserve Desk and used throughout the building. These PCs — a cooperative arrangement between the library and UI Computer Services — were the humble forerunners of the computer labs which today furnish more than 100 computers on the first and fourth floors.

Early 1990, however, saw the library’s long-awaited expansion and renovation receive planning and first-year construction funding from the Idaho State Legislature. Groundbreaking was slated for August 1991, with construction to be completed by the end of 1993.

The plan was to construct, on the north side of the building, a 60,000-square-foot addition (half the size of the existing building) to all five levels (including the basement). The entrance, then still on the building’s east side, would be relocated to the north side. Once the addition is completed, the rennovation would begin, with special attention to the heating, coooling, ventilating and electrical and lighting systems. The plan set certain goals:

• recognize the prominence of the journal to research, by combining current and back issues of journals in one area (the 2nd floor), with an adjacent photocopy center and most of the self-service copiers;
• reduce noise by separating service and study areas by concentrating services on the first few floors;
• combine as many service points as possible, to make better use of personnel and thus expand hours of service; this led to the amalgamation of circulation and reserves, and the elimination of separate reference desks for sciences, the humanities and the social sciences;
• anticipate the growth of electronic services by providing adequate cable raceways and and electrical services.

Meantime, after barely three years with UI Library, Eileen Hitchingham accepted a position at Drexel University, and Ronald W. Force, who had risen to associate dean of library services, stepped in as acting dean effective June 1990. An alumnus of Iowa State University, the University of Minnesota, and Ohio State University (where he earned a master’s in natural resources), Force had arrived at UI Library in 1982 from nearby WSU, where he’d been assistant director for public services, and had served as UI’s assistant science librarian, access services librarian, and humanities librarian.

The May 1991 Bookmark unveiled details of the $12.9-million (66,000 sf) renovation and addition, including floorplans and architects’ renderings showing a clocktower at the northeast corner, which would contain an elevator and stairs. "The improvements will bring the building up to current standards for safety and handicapped access," wrote Force. Other features would include carpeted floors, a classroom for library instruction, and six group study rooms. Reference would be consolidated at a single desk just inside the main entrance.

UI president Elisabeth Zinser had urged enhancements to the original plans. "It’s particularly important for the library to be one of the most respected buildings on campus," she told reporters. The new design was also intended to bridge the gap between the older collegiate-gothic style buildings of the central campus and the more modern western campus. Private funding was solicited for the architectural enhancements as well as landscaping and new furnishings.

In June 1991, Force was named the new Dean of Library Services. And that September, just as ground was broken for the expansion, the library announced further plans that would also fundamentally improve service — the purchase of an integrated online computer system which would replace the LaserCat CD-ROM system. The CARL catalog would be accessible from inside and outside the library —indeed, from any computer with a modem. Because of its integrated design, by the following year, the new catalog would include circulation information — allowing the user to determine whether a particular book was checked out.

Thus, wrote Force, "at the end of 24 months of construction, destruction, disruption, dust and noise, we’ll have a new, distinctive and functional library designed to serve the university into the next century." Indeed, as of 2000, both the building and CARL catalog were still in use, though CARL had undergone several upgrades, including a Web interface in the summer of 1997.

Rampant increases in the prices of academic journals continued to play havoc with the library’s budget — and to require the cancellation of many titles, to the chagrin of many researchers.

Meantime, the library’s provision of databases continued to grow — albeit slowly by today’s standards. Most article indexes in the early ’90s were on CD-ROM, not online. By late 1990, however, students and staff could search the online Medline database — "free," proclaimed The Bookmark — for a few hours each weekday afternoon on library computers. (Today, Medline is but one of several dozen databases freely accessible to staff and students via the library’s website, ‘round the clock, from any Web computer. And increasingly, these databases provide the full-text of articles, representing a shift away from paper journals, not to mention paper indexes.)

When the construction din finally ceased in ‘93, half a million books still had to be moved between floors. But the university had a modern library — more than half again the size it had been in the 1980s — to serve the campus’ needs well into the next century.