The Dedication of the William Robert Parks and Ellen Sorge Parks Library

good morning as I walked across this beautiful campus this morning on this glorious June day I I thought if I were but a poet I would write something and if I were a poet I would write something that would say what is so rare is a day in June then if ever come perfect days and heaven tries earth of it be in tune and over it softly her warm ear lays and then I thought James Russell Lowell might not like my infringement on his copyright until I refrain from the rest but I bid you welcome on this eighth day of June 1984 to the dedication ceremonies of the William Robert parks and the Ellen Sorge parks library it is altogether fitting and proper that the names of these scholars and educational leaders should grace a building such as a library because libraries for centuries have been the core of intellectual growth and development and it's not only logical but it is natural to associate higher learning with a library it is equally appropriate then that the names of scholars and builders and benefactors in centers of higher learning should be given to those structures that housed the storehouse of resources which contribute to continuing intellectual growth the first great library was established by Aristotle in Athens around 334 BC and we're told that he rented some buildings in the northeast part of that city in an area known as the Lyceum and there in the lemon groves in that beautiful place he brought together for a study a number of maps as well as hundreds of manuscripts covering a wide range of scientific and philosophical subjects and his was the first great university library and it served as a model for the library at Alexandria Egypt which was to become the greatest library in the Western world not all of the ancient philosophers however were intrigued with the written word Plato who was Aristotle's teacher and who himself was a student of Socrates wrote about that great change from a spoken tradition to a written one and Plato records the objections of Socrates who held that the written word did violence to the art of the dialectic that interchange between student and teacher which is so fundamental for the learning process and Plato in his writing quotes Socrates as holding that written words quote go on telling you the same thing forever if men learn this said Socrates it will implant forgetfulness in their souls into quote well parenthetically it occurs to me that this attitude of Socrates might just have been his excuse for not publishing at any rate he was only partially right but he was mostly in error as the works of his successors in a khadeem we have proven over the years the written word increased not only the quantity but the quality of the dialectic or the interchange between teacher and student in the learning environment libraries of course have been central for centuries the library at Alexandria located on the corniche facing outward to the beautiful Mediterranean and just across the way from the ancient lighthouse one of the seven wonders of the ancient world was itself a wonder it contained some five hundred thousand Scrolls or volumes and nobody will ever know what was subtracted from the world's accumulated learning when it was damaged as Julius Caesar fired the warships in the harbor Dockyard on that fateful day in 47 BC and while it was not completely destroyed that library passed into a state of decline and disuse and never again did it occupy a place of prominence then with a decline of Athens and the fall of the Roman Empire around 500 AD learning and scholarship deteriorated in the Western world and during the ensuing Dark Ages and early into the Middle Ages scholarship was kept alive in the monasteries where a worthy form of labour was the copying of manuscripts Western civilization the growth of the written word and the development of libraries owes much to such historical figures as Charlemagne whose own rich palace library after his coronation in 800 AD became the cultural and the literary center of his time and in the centuries that followed the rise of the great universities in Europe at Salerno at Bologna at Paris at the Sorbonne and at Oxford as well as the development of movable type by Gutenberg in the 15th century all bull work the development of the modern university library we have come a long way a university library today is far more than a repository for books and manuscripts it is a learning center with a plethora of instructional tools embracing a wide range of technological processes and utilizing sophisticated instrumentation but too many of us the books and the periodicals are still basic as are the persons the people who work very and in whose skit is to facilitate the process of teaching the rest of us how to use effectively such a valuable resource today we salute the development of this great resource on our campus at Iowa State and we seek to recognize the contributions of two of our own who have helped make the library so important and so valuable in this academic environment as we strive on this campus for increased excellence in this decade the parks library will be central in our continuing quest in a lighter vein while the official name will be the William Robert parks and Ellen Sorge parks library you will note that the program for today's ceremony also refers to the parks library it is reported to that students as befits students in all generations have their own idiomatic nomenclature I have heard on campus for example such remarks as hey let's meet over at Bob and Ellen's place and they don't mean the knoll today however we plan to be more dignified we have as participants this morning a coterie of distinguished persons who have been asked to offer remarks as befit this occasion we are indeed honored to have with us this morning as a participant in this program the governor of our state a governor I might add who is vitally interested in the development of education at all levels he has graciously consented in the midst of a very busy schedule to share some remarks with us in this dedication ceremony this time it's my privilege to present to you the governor of the state of Iowa the Honorable terry e Branstad Vergil thank you very much whoever planned this did a good job because as long as I've been in politics they always said always set it up so there's not enough chairs and then they won't the media won't take pictures of all the empty places and I think there's twice as many people as there are chairs I think that's indicative of the kind of support commitment and appreciation that the Alumni the faculty and the students have for this university and and certainly for for this very special couple that this library is named after I've had the opportunity to be here here at Iowa State for many things football and basketball games cultural events like the Czech Philharmonic Greek Week and most recently the Visha parade but I've never had the opportunity to participate in a function like this and I'm very pleased to be here today and participate in the dedication of a major facility on this campus our outstanding land-grant University in the state of Iowa we're all aware of the importance of our public institutions of higher education we look to our state universities to teach to pursue new areas of knowledge and to share their research for the benefit of all in spite of our limited state funds our faith and confidence in Iowa State University is evident in the support and commitments that we and state government have made to continued progress on this campus the university library is the heart of any academic institution today's students are the beneficiaries of the accumulated wisdom of those that have gone before them research from throughout the world is deposited in this library and discoveries from ongoing research will be added to this storehouse of knowledge in Iowa and across the nation we are asking more questions and seeking more answers than ever before we must work harder to loon to learn more about ourselves our environment and this entire world that we're a part of it is equally apparent that the knowledge base is expanding and changing at a faster rate than at any other time in human history in this period of difficult questions and changing wisdom our libraries are challenged as never before today's library must collect a simulate file and effectively retrieve all sorts of information the William Robert parks and Ellen Sorge parks library is modern in every sense it is an advanced facility that stores information electronically as well as in print it holds 1.5 million books and journals and it houses 3.5 million items of other valuable research for example this library is the home of the unique American archives of factual film and befitting of Iowa's land-grant University it is the home of the archive of American agriculture a library is an ever growing and changing facility even now the original structure is being remodeled just as human knowledge grows and changes the parks library will do likewise in future years I'm pleased to be here and to be a part of this ceremony of the official dedication of the William Robert parks and Ellen Sorge parks library we are proud of Iowa State University we are proud of president parks and his national stature in the field of higher education and we are proud of his scholar wife dr. Ellen Sorge parks each of them has made significant and important contributions to human knowledge contributions that are housed in this library and in libraries all across the world it is a rare yet in this case most appropriate and fitting honor that is bestowed on Bob and Ellen parks with the dedication of this library I want to add my personal congratulations and best wishes to you thank you very much we are most pleased to have with us this morning another distinguished Iowan whose continued leadership in the educational community of this state is both noteworthy and important it's my pleasure at this time to present our friend and colleague the President of the Board of Regents mr. SJ Brownlee Governor Branstad distinguished guests Iowa's public universities today are being called upon to provide leadership as our society becomes more and more information oriented in our so-called high-tech society information knowledge critical to enlightened living is our most valuable commodity knowledge drives business and industry and it's possession is a source of tremendous power our broadened exposure to new and changing information enhances all our lives and enriches our appreciation of the values of the human condition a modern library which the William Robert parks and Ellen Sarge parks library most certainly is stands at the vital center of human need and aspiration today a library has long stood as a symbol of enlightenment and civilized values today it's the center of information in books journals microfiche tape film discs and so on the technology has changed but the central role of the university library and the land-grant University is not this magnificent repository of human knowledge could be no more appropriately named those of us who have the privilege to know and work with Bob and Ellen parks have not only sincere affection for them as friends but a great respect for the leadership they have given this great University and for their dedication to intellectual excellence I'm honored to represent the State Board of Regents at this significant moment in the history of this great University thank you a moving force in the development of funding for the parks library has been the Gulf of the Board of Governors of the Iowa State University Foundation the name of Sam Hamilton a past president of this foundation is well known to all members of the Iowa State family and we welcome him now in his role as the representative of the foundation mr. Hamilton Thank You Virgil Governor Branstad dear friends and guests it's a real pleasure and indeed privilege to represent the Board of Governors on this very special occasion and to again share the podium with it with these distinguished guests and in particular our esteemed fellow governor and Ellen and wonderful friends for all of these years 25 years ago dr. Hilton called together a small group of alumni and formed the Board of Governors and formed the foundation the immediate objective objective was to design and build a cultural complex a center that we finally named it and to provide a base and the facilities for the development and growth of the College of Humanities those buildings and even the stadium have now been completed but in these years of work always when we were on campus and meeting with the Board of Governors we received from our friend dr. parks word describing the library and the need for something to be done in that area we recognized that the need for funds was first importance first of importance and so in order to kick off so to speak the project even before the legislature appropriated funds for the building we set aside $400,000 as seed money for the study of libraries for design and plans perhaps this fund that we provided stimulated the legislature we hope it did because almost immediately an appropriation cleared the legislature and money was available for the construction of the library now with this facility completed it stands a reality and a tribute to Bob and Ellen parks on this significant occasion we applaud our friends of the Iowa State University and to express our appreciation for their support and their contributions that have enabled the university to again the high level of excellence envisioned by dr. parks and described nearly 20 years ago in his inaugural address at his investor as president Ellen and Bob you have indeed provided outstanding leadership here and even beyond the campus and the boundaries of the state of Iowa it is appropriate that your names be placed on this library and we the governors of the board upon as a foundation are most happy to have a part in this dedicating ceremony thank you the indefatigable Dean of library services mr. Warren Kuhn has contributed mightily over the years to the development of this library his vision foresight and his planning have been an integral part of the library success and we all know that it's a pleasure to present him to you at this time Dean Warren Q Warren Governor Branstad distinguished guests and friends a dedication is an occasion for Thanksgiving a most special time to express publicly our appreciation to those who have made possible such a building as this to my mind words pale beside this magnificent structure and what it has meant and will mean in the daily life of this University and this state by any measure however what we say and do here this morning clearly underlines the faith of Iowa and Iowa State University in the value and permanent nourishment of educational opportunity a library building characterizes that opportunity almost uniquely for a building and a book of a great deal in common both capture time and ideas in a single entity if buildings and books are created with purpose they endure most importantly they speak eloquently if we listen a building to house a library thus becomes a perfect joining books and building become one a home for thought and study an ideal location for a continual celebration of learning for these reasons we now place on record our deepest thanks to Governor Branstad and the people of Iowa for their fervent commitment to the acquisition preservation and creation of knowledge which has sustained this university and this library for more than a century to Regions President Brownlee and the his colleagues of a State Board of Regents and their staff for their absolute dedication on behalf of education research and extension so implicit in this building to Sam Hamilton past president of the board of governors of the Iowa State University Foundation and the members of that governing board whose foresight and unselfish generosity made the initial planning of the library edition possible to the administration faculty students and staff of Iowa State and most particularly to the library faculty and staff for the abiding and unstinting support and cooperation they have given the library endeavor and the advice they have freely shared with us to the architects consultants engineers and builders whose work has combined expectation inspiration and function into this immensely usable tool and to the countless alumni friends and all whose gifts and endless devotion to quality have provided this library with so many of its remarkable dimensions yet buildings as with anything of purpose must have a focal wisdom that says yes this must be done at Iowa State that focal point that leadership lies with Robert and Ellen parks unassumingly and patiently wholeheartedly and actively they have been for years at the very heart of what we share today for this and for the support of hand towards scholarship and service they have always held so warmly outstretched to all of us we asked them to accept our most profound gratitude as we named this building in their honor the parks library offers a most special challenge we well understand the need to preserve the memory of humankind which libraries make possible but it is for us here to continually husband and replenish that intellectual record and make it available for those who now and in the future will distill this accumulated wisdom and use it to make those humane and human judgments that touch us all the parks library is a superb setting for readying good minds to make those judgments it has been said good minds are the essence of a university they burn brightest in an atmosphere of excellence the William Robert parks and Ellen Sorge parks library is a great step forward in making that atmosphere of excellence flourish at Iowa State University thank you I would like at this time to present to you one half of the parks team and ask her to rise for your greeting I'd like to present dr. Ellen Sorge Parks Ellen how does one present his boss my answer is very carefully you know this is particularly so when your boss was also your teacher and who still grades you and corrects you on occasion seriously though President parks needs no formal introduction he is well known on this campus in this state and across this country he is a distinguished American educator a scholar a valued friend and colleague to his faculty an outstanding administrator a builder who has made this a broad-based University and who together with the other dr. parks in the family has served and is serving this university and the people of this state with distinction ladies and gentlemen it is my very real pleasure to present to you at this time the president of Iowa State University dr. William Robert parks thank you very much Virgil from those neat compliments you were heaping on us the audience might get the impression you think I'm still grieving your final exam papers Governor Branstad is is a real pleasure to have you with us today we appreciate it so much and we're also grateful to you for the support you give this University in its activities SJ Brownlee I you we're also grateful to you for the first great way in which you represented your colleagues on the Board of Regents I shall get real pushy and report to them that you did very well indeed to Sam Hamilton I say that it seems very right and natural Sam to share a dedication ceremony with you we have broken the champagne bottle so to speak on quite a few structures over the last two decades Sam which is another way of saying that we appreciate very much the Board of Governors of the Iowa State University Foundation and how they have helped us in the building of so many structures including this beautiful and handsome addition to the Iowa State University Library Lauren Kuhn your presence today is not totally unexpected and you have every right to be here certainly members of the Iowa State family and friends a couple of weeks ago Dave lent who is the director of information here at Iowa State came over to my office with a first draft in his own handwriting of the list of speakers were being suggested for this occasion and it had listed on this original draft did they brought me the names of Ellen parks along with my own when this was presented to her however she flatly and categorically declined to be on the program insisting and get this insisting that I alone should speak for the parks family now this in itself my friends this concession is sufficiently unprecedented to make this a memorable occasion seriously Ellen and I are greatly honored by the naming of the library especially am i pleased to be sharing this honor with her not for sentimental reasons alone but because her devotion and concern for this library has been so steadfast and so long-standing it was one of the long-established tales in the lore of the Sarge family that as soon as she was allowed in that and that was a fair that a fairly early age I get it to wander freely around the small Wisconsin town which he lived Ellen's summer days were divided between the swimming pool of the town swimming pool and the public library it was also a part of the story that she was always extremely reluctant when they were due to return the arm loads of books she had checked out and in consequence accumulated in the eyes of your economy minded and mother horrendous library fines part of this family history must at least have been true for all those she became and only an average swimmer with absolutely no style the library the library wherever she has resided has always been central in the pattern of her life and within a few weeks after we first arrived here in Ames in a in a 10-year old beat-up 1938 Dodge which just barely made the trip from Washington DC to Ames Iowa she became an eager patron of this particular library in those early years he or she developed a strong concern for what she considered to be the inadequate holdings in the areas of her special interest and repeatedly and even forcefully declared that somebody should do something about it and today I speak with some confidence when I assure you that this library's holdings in these areas have been so steadily growing that they can now stand alongside those of most of the finest university research libraries in the country I might add after I had achieved some standing in the administration of this university if I had ever wavered in my support of the library I would not have been able to have gone home to a very comfortable evening but this is sufficient comment on how much this library means to the Parkes family a much more important is an assessment of what a great library means to any University which aspires to greatness and what this particular library means to the growth and quality of Iowa State University during the decade of the late 60s to the late 70s under the leadership of Dean Warren Kuhn and with the support of the resources we were able to siphon off for the library's use the holdings of this library grew impressively by 1978 however it became only too clear that if this university was to fulfil was splendid potential as a broad-based university of high excellence it was necessary that the university undertake as one of its central goals the major task of transforming this library into one of the truly fine university libraries in the nation therefore in my 1978 convocation addressed the faculty and staff of Iowa State University I attempted to assess a critical role that the excellent University library has in the development of the excellent University today if I may I would like to quote briefly from that 1978 address I made to our faculty three hundred and forty years ago in the late summer days of 1638 a 31 year old quiet scholarly unassertive minister whose personality and attainments during his brief life had apparently made so small a stir in the new Puritan settlements that he was little known to his fellow colonists bequeathed as he lay dying of a consumption his book collection of some four hundred volumes to the new college which was to be built at new town a primitive hamlet which had only recently been renamed Cambridge and with this remarkable benefaction of four hundred books Harvard University was on its way writing a few days after John Harvard's death a contemporary reports to a friend in England there is a university house reared I here and a pretty library begun so well did the Puritan leaders understand that a pretty library in their words was the indispensable foundation upon which a university is built that's a great in general court had on its first meeting day the following spring ordered that the College agreed upon formally to be built at Cambridge shall be called Harvard College since the first and since their first beginnings in some three hundred and forty years ago the library has been the bedrock foundation for those institutions whose purpose as if yours is quite simply stated is to advance learning and to perpetuate it to posterity it is a core of the American University as it was known in the past and as it exists today the growth and the excellence and usefulness of a university is critically dependent upon the growth and the excellence and usefulness of its libraries the great universities have the great libraries and it is my firm belief that the course of the future development of the Iowa State University as one of the major teaching research universities in the nation will be fundamentally affected by the growth in the excellence of our University Library and that ends the quotation from my 1978 talk to the faculty we can be proud of the progress which has been made in improving the physical structures and the holdings of our library under the talented and energetic leadership of being warren tune and his library staff colleagues with the cooperation of the Board of Regents the ISU foundation the governor and the Iowa Legislature but attaining excellence in the library by containing excellence in academic undertakings in general is a never-ending process is always a continuing struggle a process of becoming rather than a comfortable state of being the real read at the real dedication which we must make here today then is not just that a formally attaching to the library the names of two deeply grateful and honored persons rather this is an occasion on which all members of this university community and its friends and supporters must rededicate themselves to the continuing and vigorous effort to achieve and retain the library excellence upon which this University's future quality so greatly depends I think Dean Kuhn if you would come forward at this time and assist me we would like to show you at this time an artist's rendition of the plaque which will be placed on this library honoring both William Robert parks and Ellen swords parks and with a good visual representation of who they are one more thing as we conclude our ceremony today may I remind you that the portrait of President parks will be placed permanently for viewing in the Bruner gallery and as we conclude today may I say on behalf of the whole university family that we thank you for your attendance and we I've been asked to remind you that the building will be open for viewing until 5:00 p.m. thank you good morning and Godspeed you might want to get one of those