Robert E. Kennedy Library

Cal Poly's first library was founded in 1903 in a single room of the original administration building on campus (now demolished). In 1942, the library made its first move to the newly completed clock tower administration building.

The first building to be constructed at the university post-World War II was The Walter F. Dexter Library, which cost $700,000. Dedicated in October 1948, the building memorialized the Sacramento administrator who had helped secure collegiate status for Cal Poly eight years earlier. In 1980, the library moved to its current location, a building named in honor of President Emeritus Robert E. Kennedy (1966-1979). The construction of the building began in 1977 and was completed in August 1980, at a cost of $11 million.

From its origins in a single room of the first administration building to the present facility housing a collection of nearly five million items, the library has grown to contain a rich collection of books, journals, electronic resources, multimedia, K-12 learning resources, and government documents.

Special Collections, a department of The Robert E. Kennedy Library at Cal Poly, was established in 1969 to build primary source research collections that reflect and support the polytechnic curriculum of the university.

Major subject areas in the collections include: book arts, environmental history, ethnic studies, fine printing, graphic arts, Julia Morgan's and John Steinbeck's first editions, landscape architecture in California, Robinson Jeffers' first editions, San Luis Obispo regional history, social history, William Randolph Hearst, and San Simeon. The focus of these subjects mainly derives from architecture and the building environment of California.

Researchers from every state and many countries have traveled to the Kennedy Library to use the archival collections of manuscripts, rare books, architectural drawings, and photographs. Special Collections materials have been featured on BBC, CNN, PBS, A&E, and in international print media.[2]

The library collects archival and printed materials on the history, growth, and development of Cal Poly in the University Archives.

The building includes seven computer labs, twelve large collaboration rooms, more than twenty group study rooms, and a number of non-group study rooms, all of which are available for use twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Each collaboration room is equipped with a white board and a flat screen monitor (VGA connection with supported resolutions: 1920x1080, 1280x720), with room for up to eight people. The group-study rooms are available on a first-come, first-served basis, on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th floors. Students have access to over 300 computers, and they can check out high-tech equipment like laptops, cameras, camcorders, chargers and tripods.

The Robert E. Kennedy Library has been voted "Best On-Campus Study Spot" every year since 2006 by readers of the campus newspaper, Mustang News. "It is a place to concentrate. If I physically go here, it helps me think it is my study time." Dan McGrail, Cal Poly student, as quoted in Mustang Daily, February 17, 2012.[3]

Kennedy Library offers a number of ongoing and special events for both the campus and the community:

• Conversations with Cal Poly Authors celebrates publications of creative and scholarly books by Cal Poly faculty and staff.
• The Kennedy Library was one of eight national recipients of the 2012 Freedom to Read Foundation's Judith F. Krug Fund Grant, which supported the 30th anniversary of Banned Books Week. The library celebrated with web and print info-graphics (designed by Cal Poly students), a podcast series, and an appearance by Stephen Chbosky, the author of The Perks of Being a Wallflower.
• In 2014, Kennedy Library was named an Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Excellence in Academic Libraries Award Winner. Sponsored by ACRL and YBP Library Services, the award recognizes library staff and programs that deliver exemplary services and resources to further the educational mission of the institution. ACRL awards are given out in university, college and community college categories. Robert E. Kennedy Library was selected in the university category for the innovations in student engagement.[4]

• Robert E. Kennedy Library website