UT history revisits the Tower's library years
A UT Austin campus history piece looks back at the Main Building's Life Science Library from 1933 to 1977. One detail stands out: a hidden pneumatic tube console once moved book request slips through the Tower stacks.
Facilities workers recently uncovered part of the old pneumatic tube system behind a marble wall in the Loan Room. For decades, students wrote call numbers on slips, librarians sent the slips through tubes, and workers retrieved books from the Tower stacks before sending them down by book elevator.
The library opened in 1933 after part of Old Main was removed to make way for the current Main Building and Tower. The building brought major collections together, including the Garcia Library, rare book holdings tied to the Wrenn and Stark collections, and a large newspaper collection that moved from Sutton Hall.