History
The Territorial Library was first housed in the Territorial Capitol Building that burned in 1855 with most of the library collection lost to the fire. The Oregon State Library was established as the Oregon Library Commission in 1905. The original mission of the Library was to establish public and school libraries throughout Oregon. Cornelia Marvin came to Oregon from the Wisconsin Free Library Commission to become the first State Librarian. Soon the State Library was also providing information to state government agencies and collecting and preserving the publications of state agencies.
Prior to the completion of a stand alone building in 1939, the state library was located in the basement and first floor of the Oregon Supreme Court Building. This building and the Oregon State Capitol were connected by tunnels used for heating and electricity, the fire that destroyed the capitol in 1935 also caused damaged to the library collections. This was due to the water used to fight the fire drained into the basement and destroyed many books stored in the library.
In 1969 the Library took over talking book and Braille library services for blind and print-disabled Oregonians from the Multnomah County Library in Portland.
Read more about this topic: Oregon State Library
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