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Library History

Haselwood Library

Building the Haselwood Library

The Haselwood Library was built after a major district-wide fundraising effort and open on March 10, 2000 at a cost of $7.9 million. As the first new building in the college's revised Master Plan, the new structure offered over $1.5 million in new books, periodicals, media, and equipment that replace contents which were lost when the roof of the previous building collapsed in a major snowstorm.

The Haselwood Library building includes 40,199 square feet on three-story , and has views of Mt. Rainier, Port Washington Narrows and the Olympic Mountains. Schreiber & Lane, Architects, used natural light extensively in their “Northwest Lodge” design.

The Haselwoods

The library is named in honor of Bremerton residents and benefactors, Joanne and Chuck Haselwood. The Haselwoods generously supplied the lead gift of $250,000 toward the Olympic College Library Campaign, one of the largest single donations in Kitsap County fund-raising history. "Chuck and Joanne Haselwood have played a significant role in the success of Olympic College over the years, " said Cary Bozeman, Executive Director of the Olympic College Foundation. "We are eternally grateful for their generosity."

The Haselwoods are known for their community involvement, also supporting the Admiral Theatre, YMCA, Our Lady of the Sea School, Special Olympics, and numerous other projects including parks and recreation and various youth organizations. "Four of our children went to Olympic College, and we have lots of grandkids who may go there," Joanne said. "There's not much sense in having a college if you can't have a library to go along with it". Our part of the world would not be the same without the Haselwoods.


(Sources: Olympic College Hall of Fame & Benefactors' Award Dinner Program, 1998; "$250,000 given for new library" by Elena Castaneda The Sun. June 25, 1997.  email dated 03/12/2012 from Ruth Saucier, Dean of Library Media, Olympic College.)

 

April 12, 2007 update: Joanne Haselwood presented $1,000,000 to the OC Foundation on behalf of her deceased husband, Charles (Chuck) Haselwood to enhance the Haselwood Library Endowment Fund.


The students of Olympic College have benefited for years from the generosity of Chuck and Joanne Haselwood. The Haselwoods were the lead supporters in a campaign to rebuild the Library after its collapse in a 1996 snowstorm. Every year since, Chuck and Joanne have given substantial funds into an Endowment designed to keep the facility technologically current. This ultimate gift of the Charles Haselwood estate is the capstone to a career dedicated to making our corner of the world a better place to live.


On behalf of the students of Olympic College, the staff and faculty of the Haselwood Library offer our profound thanks. We are proud to work in a building that bears their name.
 

Haselwood Library Opening Day

Library

  • Opening date: March 10, 2000
  • Size: 26,798 square feet
  • Total occupancy: 632
  • Seating capacity: 323
  • Collection capacity: 60,000
  • New books purchased: 7,000 titles ($500,000)
  • Periodicals purchased: 6,639 reels of microfilm ($500,000)
  • Classroom computers: 32
  • Public computers: 28
  • Group study rooms: 11

Media Services & Distance Learning

  • Opening date: August 8, 2000
  • Size: 9,840 square feet
  • Distance learning classroom
  • Client multimedia production classroom
  • Production Studio

Center for Teaching & Learning

  • Opening date: Fall 2010
  • Size:3,561 square feet
  • Training center for faculty and staff

Frequently asked questions

What kind of tree is that in front of the library?

Redwood tree

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This big beautiful tree is a giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum). The big tree was planted in 1977 as part of the landscaping for the then new Learning Resources Center building. At that time the tree was between 6 feet and 7 feet tall. The tree was the same perfect cone shape that it is today except that its branches came all the way down to the ground.

 In December of 1996 the roof of the Learning Resources Center building collapsed in a snowstorm and the building was destroyed. Much machinery and equipment came onsite to cleanup debris and then to build the new Haselwood Library. During this time the shallow roots of this lovely tree were trampled and the tree became stressed.

The State Arborist was called in to "save the tree". The tree was "basal pruned" to remove weight and stabilize the tree. (If you look carefully at the tree from just the right angle you can see an indentation or jaggedness at a certain point in the tree which alters the perfect conical shape. This is the "stress line."

The tree has been thriving in place ever since!

Edited 05/2020 to correct the species name of the tree.

Where did that big oak table on the second floor come from?

oak tableThe table with at least three lives.

Although we don't know exactly where or when the table was made, we do know that the table was first used in the State Capitol in Olympia. It was going to be sent to surplus but instead, Olympic College got it (Eescape Number One). The table was first used at Olympic College in the College Services Center (CSC) Administration building. After some time, approximately 1984 or 1985, the building was renovated and the table was no longer  wanted in the CSC building. Emmett Hoynes, Library Director at that time, feared the table would be discarded and asked that it be moved to the library (Escape Number Two).

Removing the table from the CSC building was quite the task: the glass balcony doors had to be removed on that floor, a crane was brought in, the table top was removed from the base and the pieces were lowered to the ground below. Then it was brought to the library and reassembled. The table was put in the reference area of the old library building. In 1996 when the LRC roof collapsed the table was damaged but not destroyed. James Holt, then Director of Physical Plant, took the table home and refinished it in his workshop (Escape Number Three). The chairs that accompany the table have had their cushions replaced a few times over the years.

The table is now located on the Haselwood Library second floor and is used frequently by students for studying.

What is the story behind the globe?

globe

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This unusual globe was purchased in 1998. The Haselwood Library was in the process of design and construction and although the librarians had requested some curved walls, it seems impractical because "curves cost money!" But, when the architects saw this globe, they decided to build a curved alcove specifically to show off the globe.

What kind of cactus is that?

cactus

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Jake" is an Euphorbia trigona (common name is African Milk Tree). Jake was purchased at the Silverdale Costco on opening day in 1985 by the Paschke family. Jake was donated by the Paschke family in 2001 when he was about 17 years old and too big to live in the family home. Jake is in the Haselwood Library main floor near the big windows. As a young cactus, Jake was watered every two weeks and fed Miracle Grow quarterly. Jake has been known to bloom and has white flowers.

Photographs by Leslie Hassett

1946-2000

One Room Library and One Librarian- 1946

The Olympic Junior College hired a single librarian in 1946 and in the spring quarter of that first year, a single room was provided as a dedicated library space. Lorraine Carter, the Librarian, recorded the library budget as $5,000 annually from 1946-1950. The full story is available in the digitized volume "A History of the Olympic College Library from 1946-1977" by Lorraine Carter.

A Growing Learning Resource Center- 1963-1977

The Library/Media Center moved it's collection of 40,000+ books and busy audio-visual collection into its own building on the OC main campus in 1963. By 1977, when Emmet Hoynes was the director, the building was expanded to approximately 24,000 sq. feet.

Roof Collapse of Learning Resource Center- 1996

The roof of the library collapsed in a historic snowstorm December 1996. The process of recovering contents, condemning the portion of the collapsed building, working with architects and letting the bid out (twice) for the rebuilding took three and a half years. The eastern two-thirds of the building was utterly destroyed, so the library functioned in cramped, rearranged quarters, using the surviving circulating collection, one percent of the reference collection, and a few still-functioning computers. The balance of the library’s holdings, equipment, and surviving collection were housed, along with media services, in mobile homes, a Bremer Trust house, and stuffed into odd corners across campus. The new building was completed in stages. Stage one was to rebuild the eastern portion, turning it into a three story building.. That portion of the building was opened on March 10, 2000. The remainder of the building was then gutted, rebuilt, and re-opened August 8, 2000.  

George W. Martin Collection

Established in honor of a former Olympic College registrar and an inductee into the OC Hall of Fame, the Martin Collection contains materials on mountaineering and outdoor education. While worldwide in scope, its particular emphasis is on the Pacific Northwest.

The Library is not adding materials to this collection at this time.

Thomas Graham Collection

The Thomas Graham Collection is endowed by Dr. Louis Graham in honor of his son, who worked as a Program Assistant in the Social Science and Humanities Division from 1998-2007. Thomas Edward Graham died on July 14, 2007, while descending the Mount Jupiter Trail in the Olympic Mountains with a hiking group from the Olympia Branch of the Mountaineers.

The Thomas Graham Collection is housed in the Thomas Graham Room at Haselwood Library. The funds from the endowment are used to expand the collection and to furnish the room. The collection and its room are designed to be a community place where people can come together to learn about, and to celebrate the history and beauty of our demesne as well as the life of a man who traveled the world by different paths.