115 Harding’s Heart In 1928, a Harding Bulletin article shared, “The heart of a college is its library.” Over the past hundred years, the history of Harding’s libraries continually exhibited that notion. Harding College inherited the library’s first collection after the merger of Harper College and Arkansas Christian College in 1924. In Jennie Hill Hall, the library was located in the basement of the girls’ dormitory along with a reading room and three classrooms. Though there was immediate access to a collection after the merger, Harding’s first library was not without beginning struggles. At the time, the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools required libraries to have a collection of 8,000 volumes. Harding College fell short of that mark with its inherited collection of 3,000 volumes. With great effort, 2,000 more volumes were added within the first year. During the college’s second year, Dean L.C. Sears worked with librarians at Chicago University and handpicked 3,000 volumes. In the summer following the first academic year as Harding College, 1,200 books were added to the library catalog. This brought the total number of the collection to 7,200. With Roxie Woodring as the first librarian, this dedication built the grounds for what would become one of the most carefully curated libraries in Arkansas. The library was initially organized using the Dewey Decimal system and a triplicate card catalog system. Students in Morrilton also had access to the Carnegie Library, which contained an additional 7,000 volumes. Once Harding relocated to Searcy, formerly where Galloway Female College was located, the library’s second home was Godden Hall. As the largest building on campus, it hosted over 16,000 books as well as dorm rooms, offices, classrooms, the post office and auditorium. Mrs. Catherine Score, the former librarian of 10 years for Galloway, became the new librarian for Harding. Annie Mae Alston replaced Score in June 1947. Alston received her B.A. from Harding in 1939 and became an assistant professor of English at Harding in 1944. By 1950 the library ran out of space as the student body continued to grow, and an expansion became necessary. The librarians at the time, Alston and Anne Early, oversaw the transition from Godden to a new building. Reportedly, students volunteered to move the library’s collection of nearly 25,000 books to a new building: the Beaumont Memorial Library. At the time, card catalogs were still used to find books and interlibrary loan requests were mailed. Students often brought rolls of change so they could make copies of journal articles or prints from the microfilm machines. The Beaumont served the community well; however, technology began to advance and the student The library under the direction of Catherine Score. Godden Hall. The library was located here following the more from Morrilton. Catherine Score
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