Books and screens – the two things that provide all of the information you need when going to the library. Over the decades, however, one has become the more desirable means for most. Last week we saw how the library looked without screens. Today, we’ll look at how screens, in the shape specifically of computer screens, slowly took over the landscape of the library.

As we saw in our last blog post, the library looked like an entirely different world without screens. Students studied at tables with books by lamplight. They looked up information in a card catalog. And they composed their assignments with pen and paper.

Students working in the library, circa 1980s

A student searches through the card catalog, circa 1980s

Churchill Library, which served as the campus library from 1962 until 1982, existed as a screen free space during its 20 years of service. When D’Amour Library opened its doors in 1983, it too was screen free for over 10 years. It wasn’t until 1995, in fact, that the campus was wired for the internet and computers with internet access could be used by students in Churchill Hall. By 1998, D’Amour Library had 8 computer work stations available for student use, and was providing access to online resources such as Encyclopedia Britannica online, various periodical indexes, and WILDPAC, the library’s online catalog of books, which we still use today.

In a little more than 20 years, the amount of information online has exploded, and so have the amount of computers available in the library to access this information, thus forever changing the way students do research.

Students work in Churchill Library, circa 1960s

Students work in D’Amour Library, circa 2010s

In 2005 an addition to the library made space for the library’s first computer lab, the Digital Learning Center. And as recently as 2016, the Business Analytics Center, another computer lab, was opened in the library. There are now over 100 desktop computer available throughout the library!

To continue our series about screens, we’re going to share some pictures that may seem a little strange to us today. We’re going to travel to places where we’d expect to see a screen. Let’s start in the library!

Students working in the library, circa 1980s.

Pictured above are students studying in the library with books, paper, and pens! Not a screen in sight – no computers, no laptops, no phones. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly where they are in the library, but they appear to be surrounded by the reference collection, which was much larger then than it is today. And here’s a final observation – two of the three arms that are visible have wrist watches! Without phones to tell them the time, watches were definitely more prominent on the 1980s than they are today. Now they are more of an accessory than a necessity.

Students chat in Windham Hall, circa 1970s.

Next, we move into the residence halls! Today most rooms contain at least one screen, whether it’s a television, laptop, tablet, or phone. But here in Windham Hall in the early 1970s, students gather and chat without a screen in sight. There isn’t even a computer on the student’s work desk.

Group work in the classroom, circa 1950s

And finally, we move to a study session. Instead of a laptop and projector, there’s a chalkboard. Instead of taking notes on a laptop, tablet, or phone, they’re using pen and paper. And instead of water bottles scattered on the table, there are ashtrays!

Tune in next week to see how these places have changed into the landscapes we are familiar with today!

To kick off our series about screens and how they affected life at Western New England, we’re going to first take a look at television.

Television was on everyone’s minds during the early part of the 20th century. In the 1930s and 1940s, when televisions were being developed but not yet available for in home use, there was much talk of what the future of such a device would be. There was also much curiosity surrounding how this newfangled miracle of technology worked! And it makes sense that students at Western New England (at the time still Northeastern University Springfield Division) had a lot to say about it. Western New England is, and always has been, very engaged with the engineering disciplines.

Television was such a hot new topic that senior Frank Hegarty, who graduated with a degree in Engineering and Business in 1940, wrote his senior thesis on the new technology. His work, “Television: Will it be an Economic Success?”, is currently held in the University Archives. When we return to campus, we’ll take a look at the thesis to see if his predictions came true!

If you ever had questions of how early television technology worked, look no further than the Nor’easter, the school’s student newspaper in the 1930s and 1940s. Student Robert D. Walker, class of 1942, wrote an informative article entitled “Television” in the June 1937 issue of the paper. The article goes into detail about how the technology worked, along with predictions for the future of its use –

“…each passing year will see the web of television grow until it engulfs the entire nation and eventually the whole world. Then one may travel without leaving home; he can stay home and see the world.”

It is wonderful to see the student body interested enough in such technical topics to put it in their student newspaper. The students of Western New England have always been a community full of curiosity, and on the cusp of innovation!

Check in next week for more exploration into the screens we all know and love today!

Screens are probably on everyone’s minds right now. Whether we’re planning what to watch next to pass the time, worried about our kids looking at them too much, or totally sick of them after hours and hours of remote working and learning, screens are a constant presence during this pandemic.

It wasn’t until the middle of the previous century that screens became a familiar tool, when televisions began appearing in homes across the country. Since then, screens have become an inescapable tool for working and learning, and have surely had a presence, and an impact, on the day to day lives of those at Western New England.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be taking a closer look at how screens as technology shaped the lives of those at Western New England – for learning, working, and enjoyment.

For today, we’ll leave you with a fun note from the library from 1937 about some new, exciting resources – the journal RCA Review, and a “compact volume entitled ‘Television’ ” – for students to begin to understand television, the “young cousin of the radio industry.”

So check back frequently for more – although we apologize that you need to use a screen to do so!