St. Mary’s first freestanding library was built in 1948 as a condition for admission into the Southern Association of Colleges and Universities. The original library at the north end of St. Louis Hall was too small for a growing St. Mary’s after World War II.

The Rev. William Lamm, S.M., convinced school and provincial authorities that with student and faculty help, a library building could be erected for about $25,000.

That edifice, originally an engine repair building from Kelly Air Force Base, was dismantled and transported to the University. It determined the size and shape of the new library because it furnished the beams and trusses for the superstructure.

Crews of faculty members, religious brothers, and St. Mary’s and Central Catholic High School students dug foundations, cut steel and poured concrete through the hot summer months.

In early November, students carried the former library’s entire book collection to its new home. Opened for business on Nov. 29, 1948, the Southern Association of Colleges and Universities gave its approval of the new library and admitted St. Mary’s into its association.

The structure was dedicated as the Centennial Memorial Library because it was erected during the Centenary of the Society of Mary in America.

That building remained in use until the Academic Library, now known as the Louis J. Blume Library, was constructed in 1968.

Designed to accept technological enhancements over the years, as the University upgraded its infrastructure to accommodate the Internet generation, the Blume Library was equipped to handle those changes without extensive remodeling.

Today’s library is wired for Internet access, and its more than 550,000 volumes afford undergraduate and graduate students needed research and study opportunities.