Newspaper Article Transcripts
From the New Bedford Standard Times
Dated Tuesday, September 10, 1963:
“There is an old saying, ‘That the tide and time wait for no one.’ However New Bedford Tech is neither an ocean, nor a clock; it has to wait and has been waiting. N.B.I.T is awaiting the moving of the library into the old gymnasium. In the summer of ’62, it was the question of money and blueprints before Dr. Fosters’ plan could become a reality.” Now the plans and money exist; it’s just the fact of getting high, holy state of Massachusetts to get off its graft ridden rump, wade through its contract for the necessary construction in the gymnasium. Last year everyone was told in the sweetest prose that come September there would be a decent roomy library and study area on the third floor; instead only a group of lockers have been removed and a hamburger stand had been built next to the school. From this it is plain to see that one can erect a hotdog parlor faster than the state can renovate a small area. The latest word is that Dr.Foster’s beneficial ideas may come into existence after the first week of September, but that maybe the September of 69′ when this school wont exist as such anymore.
If and when the library is built, it will be a fabulous place and a definite morale booster to the person who can’t stand the prison-like-colors and crowdedness of the present library. The plans call for walnut paneling on the walls, a new paint job, partial vinyl carpeting, and a color scheme based on turquoise, yellow and rust-orange. The present steel garage type windows will be removed and replaced with translucent blocks. An additional staircase will be erected to the track and it will be leveled and turned into a mezzanine. In the mezzanine there will be small tables which will seat three people; fifteen on the west wall and two tables at both the North and the South; the East wall will hold all the current magazines. Special contoured chairs in decorator colors have been ordered for the elevated study area. On the ground floor there will be seating for over one hundred students at larger tables with the familiar comfortable captain’s chairs. As a student enters the door and walks down the vinyl carpet, he will be met by the charging desk and a lush planted area to the right. Farther on will be the seating area, and in back of these will be the wooden stacks and new steel ones with the same blonde finish; these stacks will be capable of holding 35,000 books. As it is now the library has to store 4000 books in the cellar, for it is so short of space in its present location. Another interesting fact about the present library is that there are only ninety five seats in the combined areas of the reading room, the library and the magazine room of which Miss Riley, the librarian, has only a four by three space for her desk. Perhaps if the State doesnt let out the contract, it will be so kind as to give this claustrophobia stricken lady a pogo stick or sky hook so she can manoeuver around the magazine room.
If Boston ever moves, there is a chance that the library could be finished off for the second semester. However if Boston doesn’t act, a student demonstration on the Common in the Puritan City might be effective. Below are a few hastily conceived lines to be sung apres’ “Peter, Paul, and Mary,” if such drastic measures need ever be taken.
“Take off your old coat and roll up your sleeves,
Moving the library is a hard job, I believe.
I looked to the Division of building,
I looked to the Department of Education,
A school asking for help in its deterioration.
But the state is strange god,
Stranger than the others;
Never was it true this side of the Acushnet.
Though they smile and tell us all Mass. schools are equals,
Why did Worcester and U. of M. get their contracts?
And poor New Bedford Tech only pains and aches.
Thus we have been branded an outcast of the mob,
But wait until ’65 and we’ll play the role of a snob!” “
From New Bedford Standard Times
Dated Wednesday, December 18, 1963
“First there were no plans; then plans and no money; finally, the school had both, and the state took its sweet time in letting out the contract. Now, with the coming of Christmas, we are finally going to receive the long awaited library.
If you go to the old gym, you will see a few handlooms still there, and piles of old lumber. This lumber is from where the track around the gym is being leveled to provide more study area. The lighting has been installed, and within sixty days or so, the library should be ready to move into the new luxurious surroundings. The difference from the old Early American Prison library as now used to this new, vibrant, electrifying area will be startling.
The plans call for covering the peeling bricks with walnut paneling, partial vinyl carpeting, and a color scheme based on turquoise, yellow and rust orange. The mill type windows will be filled in with translucent blocks, and an additional staircase will be erected to the mezzanine ( the old track). On the mezzanine, there will be tables that seat three people, fifteen of these on the west wall, two at the north and south ends. The east wall is going to be used to hold all the current magazines and various displays. Special contoured steel chairs in the previous mentioned colors have been ordered for this elevated study area, the comfortable captains chairs will be retained as well as the long study tables. In the stack section new steel stacks in the same blonde finish of the old wooden ones will be installed, thus boosting the capacity to 35,000 books. As the student walks in the door, he or she will walk down a vinyl carpet and will be met by a charging desk with a lush planted area to the right.
If some of these items turn up right away, it maybe due to the fact that of the $9000 appropriated, $3000 has been removed to paint the lounges and for the furniture now on order. Still with the $6000 left and $475 donated by the very generous N.B.I.T Alumni Association, Miss Riley should be able to make due for the present time. This library will definitely stand as a monument to the hardworking and suffering patience of Dr. Foster, Miss Riley, Mr. Roberts and others who had to go through so much to make this wonderful idea into a beautiful reality.”