Malcolm A. Love Library, opened in 1971, is the primary academic library building on the campus of San Diego State University in San Diego, California. Along with the Library Addition, it now houses the Library & Information Access. The Library located in a central position on the SDSU campus, occupies more than, seats more than 3,000 people, and circulates more than 488,000 books yearly. It has more than 2.2 million volumes, 4.6 million microform items, and 140,000 maps.
Library Addition
The Library was expanded with the opening of the Library Addition in 1996, a two-story underground addition to the library, includes a state-of-the-art Media Center, 24/7 Study Area, and two electronic classrooms.
In cooperation with SDSU's Department of English and Comparative Literature, the Library is the home to the , which recently received a $1 million gift donation by way of the Christopher D. and Karen Sickels Endowment for Special Collection in Children's Literature.
The Library's Map Collection, consists of over 135,000 sheet maps and more than 1,000 atlases and gazetteers. The collection is worldwide in scope, with an emphasis on San Diego, California, the United States of America, and Baja California. The collection has general, worldwide topographical, nautical, and aeronautical coverage. Most of the collection dates from 1945 to the present.
Special Collections
The Library's Special Collections and University Archives houses rare, fine, unique, and valuable books, periodicals, manuscripts, and documents which require security and care in handling. Other valuable historical items such as photographs, prints, postcards, memorabilia, scrapbooks, and oral histories are also held in Special Collections.
NRA Packages, a mural painted in 1936 by Genevieve Burgeson Bredo, and for many years thought lost, has been restored and is on display at the foot of the Library Addition stairs. The mural was discovered in 2004 behind ceiling tiles inside SDSU's Hardy Memorial Tower, which was part of the university's first library. Painted in a variety of media, it portrays three men unloading National Recovery Act packages from a van near San Diego's Hillcrest neighborhood. A second, larger mural, George Sorenson's San Diego Industry, remains in Hardy Tower. This mural depicts the successive stages of tuna fishing and canning, along with the multi-ethnic work force involved in that industry. The library hopes to remove, restore and relocate this mural.
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Namesake
Dr. Malcolm A. Love, Ph.D., was the fourth President of San Diego State University, serving from 1952 to 1971. Prior to his Presidency, Dr. Love was President of the University of Nevada for two years. During his nineteen years as President of SDSU, he was able to transform the institution from a teacher's college into a university. In 1966, the Carnegie Corporation named Dr. Love one of the best college Presidents in the country. With the extraordinary growth of students, faculty and facilities, there were plans for new library to be named in honor of Dr. Love. The Library was dedicated to Dr. Love in May 1971.
Other ''Libraries'' at San Diego State University
Other unofficial libraries on the SDSU campus include: