History

The Geology Department was founded in 1907, and is one of the oldest in the United States. It has had a strong national reputation in paleontology, geomorphology and sedimentology/stratigraphy historically, and more recently in geochemistry. The geology collection was begun as a departmental collection early in the history of the department. The collection was combined with University Library materials and housed with the geography collection in 103 Old Tech in 1951 to form the Geology-Geography Library. Physical geography materials remained with the geology collection in the Geology Library in Old Tech.

The Physics library has served the Department of Physics as a departmental library since 1929. Before that, the physics collection was part of the University General Library. From 1960-1974, the Physics Library also housed the mathematics collection until it moved into separate quarters. In 1987, the Physics and Geology Departments moved into the new Geology-Physics Building.  Three years later, their respective libraries merged their collections into a combined Geology/Physics Library.

In 2004, the Mathematics Library merged into the Geology-Physics Library, forming the Geology-Mathematics-Physics Library.

Geology-Geography Librarians, 1960-1989:

• Ottilia K. Tavender
• Dolores Klufoff
• Janet Gustke
• Richard A. Spohn
  

Mathematics Librarians, 1974-2004:

• Olga Dobur 1974-1979 (Head)
• Joyce Pons 1982-1986 (Head)
• John Tebo 1990-1993 (Head)
• Dorothy Byers 1993-2004 (Head)

Geology-Physics Librarians:

• Marianne Wells 1990-1997 (Physics Librarian, 1960-1990)
• Richard A. Spohn 1997-2001

Geology-Mathematics-Physics Librarians (split again in 2018):

• Angela M. Gooden 2004-2009 (Geology-Physics Librarian, 2001-2004)
• Holly Prochaska 2009-2024 (Geology-Geography-Maps Librarian)
• Mark Chalmers 2018-present (Mathematics-Physics Librarian)