Bethel University's Bowen Library

1947–present · the university library, at anchor size

The course: Bethel stands whole in this history's schools record; its library is printed here at the size a college library earns in its city's file. The university opened in the fall of 1947, and its first permanent building — the Administration Building, completed in 1952 on the university's own catalog account and later renamed for Jasper Huffman — "in the early years housed the dining hall, library, and classrooms": the library began, as Mishawaka's own had, in borrowed multipurpose rooms. Its first named keeper is preserved in a dormitory's name: Frances Shupe, "Bethel's first Director of Library Services," for whom Shupe Hall was named. The library got its own building a generation later: the Otis and Elizabeth Bowen Library — Bowen Library — constructed in 1983 under President James A. Bennett and named for Otis Bowen, Indiana's governor and the valley's own. The university's catalog describes a two-story building of circulation and reference areas, book stacks, study carrels and computing — and, inside it, two archives that reach beyond the campus: the Missionary Church Archives, the denominational memory of the church that founded the college, and the Otis Bowen Museum & Archives. A city whose public library holds its printed past has, on its east side, a university library holding its founding church's: the two collections are the valley's pair, and each is printed in its own file at its own size.

Sources:

1. Bethel University catalog, Campus Facilities and Introduction (betheluniversity.smartcatalogiq.com, editions of 2019–2020 through 2026–2027) — Bowen Library constructed 1983, named for Governor Otis Bowen; the Administration Building's early housing of the library; Frances Shupe, first Director of Library Services; the Missionary Church Archives and the Otis Bowen Museum & Archives in the building.
2. Bethel University, "History" (betheluniversity.edu) — the Bowen Library built under President Bennett, 1982–88; the university's founding in 1947.
3. The schools record of this history — Bethel University whole, cross-referenced.