The One Room Collection The origins of the modern Folsom Library can be traced to the founding of the school in 1824. It was created in line with the Constitution and Laws of Rensselaer, which stated that the school would have "a very ample scientific library to which members of the institution will have free access". At that time, the Rensselaer School occupied The Old Bank Place in Troy, and it is likely that the original library was only a single room or small part of a room. The earliest librarian was a student named Albert Danker from the first graduating class, and the collection consisted of a sparse number of scientific works. For a short period of time, the library belonged to
Amos Eaton, a local scientist and educator. He obtained rights to the Old Bank Place after the Rensselaer School changed its name to the Rensselaer Institute, and moved to the nearby Van Der Heyden Mansion. The school moved back to the Old Bank Place in the same year, and upon Eaton's death in 1842, regained ownership of the collection. The library stayed under the ownership of Rensselaer when the institute was forced to move (due to estate ownership complications) to the Infant School, a small brick building in downtown Troy. Relocation and reconstruction began on 8th Street in Troy, and in 1864, the library of 396 volumes moved into the Main Building, where it would stay for another 30 years. During that time, an 80-page catalog of the library's collection entitled "Catalogue of the Library of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, N.Y." was published, and it listed over 1000 titles spanning various technical areas. From 1893 to 1927, the library moved several times, finding home in the Alumni House on 2nd Street and later moving to the Pittsburgh Building and
Amos Eaton Hall. Student use increased during the period of 1912 to 1927 as the curriculum of the institute expanded and more volumes were added to the collection to supplement professors' instruction. It was also during this period of time that the library moved from the Pittsburgh Building to the more spacious Amos Eaton building. The
Amos Eaton building offered sufficient space for a little over 30 years, until a growing number of publications written after World War II forced the collection to move again to the recently purchased St. Joseph Convent chapel.
The Greene Report On June 20, 1967, the Library Advisory Committee published a report known as the "Greene Report", which detailed the purpose and requirements of a new library for the institute as well as previous research done about the library's efficacy. The report stated that "The Library is the information center of the university, providing resources to the scholars who are making, doing, and thinking things". President Folsom presented the idea of a phased construction to the Library Advisory Committee, who supported the idea but criticized it for its continued use of the chapel as well as placing the campus in a constant state of construction. The committee also suggested considering one of the earlier potential locations, close to the bleachers located on the '86 Field, an athletic field at the center of the campus. Professor Howard Litman, the chairman of the committee at the time, issued the statement "In summary, the most recent proposal for providing new facilities for the Rensselaer library is a workable but undesirable plan of development. It will, for the short term, provide desperately needed space, but in the long run yield an unexpectedly costly facility in the wrong place." The report convinced 10 out of the 12 members of the Library Advisory Committee to support the site recommendation. In 1971, the final decision was made to create a facility on the west side of campus. The new library would have an underground annex and a pedestrian plaza that would connect it to St. Joseph's Chapel (now the Voorhees Computing Center), and would cost approximately $6.9 million. With the constant delay in construction, many students had adopted an attitude of disdain towards the library. As one student quoted in a report on the library, "There existed an attitude of the Library being a very second class function on campus, expected to make do with inadequate housing and financial support and generally held in low self esteem."
Construction begins Unfortunately, there existed an additional delay one year after the decision was made on the location and size of the building. In 1972, James C. Andrews, the Director of Libraries at the Institute at the time, issued a report pointing out weaknesses in the recently reaffirmed proposal for construction. In the report, Andrews pointed out that the current location was far from the center of the campus and student dorms, was closed in on three sides by existing buildings, and that the size was not sufficient for the requirement decided by student and faculty surveying. Knowing that there wasn't much that could be changed about the location at this point in the development process, Andrews suggested several other improvements. The Library Journal, a magazine which discussed various designs for libraries around the country, contained an article by Andrews in which he suggested the following changes: • Cut down the design from 5 floors to 4 floors • Use in-place concrete pouring to have the concrete exterior match the chapel • Have a slot-machine cafe in the library since there were not many places to eat on the west side of campus • Make the windows double glazed and tinted to reduce drafts and provide sun control • Centralize services at the main desk to minimize the cost of keeping the library open 100 hours a week These improvements were taken into consideration in the ultimate design of the library, and construction began. The building had its dedication ceremony on May 15, 1976.
J. Erik Jonsson, an alumnus and trustee who had donated $2 million to get construction of the library started, decided to name the library after the president of the institute who had initiated construction - Richard Folsom. In its discussion of the Folsom Library, The Library Journal also includes data on the Folsom Library:
Construction errors After the initial pouring of concrete for Folsom Library's floors, it was noticed that the concrete contracted significantly—to the point that more concrete had to be poured in order to make the floors level and be able to properly install book stacks. As a result, the floors are slightly bowed. According to college legend, the contractor designed the foundation without knowing that it was to be a library. A myth spread, that persists to this day, that Folsom Library is slowly sinking or slipping down the hill. RPI students refer to this phenomenon, which also applies to a few other buildings on campus, as "sliding down the hill into Troy." However, the notion of libraries sinking into the ground is not confined to the RPI campus; other communities and colleges also report the same issues, even though it was debunked by
snopes.com. ==Folsom Library collection==