Until 1931 there was no formal Ferris library at Ferris. Prior to this time, a small room beside President 
Woodbridge Ferris' office housed his books and the teachers rooms held small subject collections. 

A story passed on over the years indicates that, starting in 1894, students could borrow books from Mr. 
Ferriss bookcase after four oclock in the afternoon. Later Mr. Ferris served on the Library Commission for 
the Phelps Free Library, and in 1910 the Ferris Institute paid for paper and paint to redecorate this 
community library. Mr. Ferris personally paid for the shelving to house the reference books. In return, 
Ferris students were encouraged to use the public library. An article in the September 20, 1927 Institute 
News states that although a faculty member, Mr. Roy Newton, stayed in Mr. Ferriss office every day from 
12:50 to 1:00 p.m. to check out books to students, few students took advantage of the service. 

In 1931 President Wells D. Whites wife and Miss Isabelle Horn, state librarian, volunteered to collect the 
schools books, catalog them, and arrange them in a small room off the auditorium, making this the 
Institutes first centralized library. Seventy-nine-year-old Charles Carlisle, a teacher at Ferris since 1892, 
was appointed librarian. In the following years the library moved twice, finally coming to rest on the top 
floor of the Old Pharmacy Building.

Mr. Carlisle died in 1937, having worked until about one month before his death, and was replaced by 
Clarence M. Mitchell, the first trained librarian to be employed at Ferris. Mr. Mitchell left Ferris Institute 
at the end of 1942 because Ferris was cutting back due to low enrollments as a result of the depression and 
the war. The library then operated on a part-time basis. In 1946, with money from returning veterans, 
Ferris Institute again hired a full-time trained librarian. Goldie T. Nott came from Greenville High School, 
cleaned out rooms, cataloged the backlog of books, and had started to move the library forward when 
disaster struck.

The fire of February 21, 1950 destroyed the Old Main Building, the Old Pharmacy Building, and the 
contents of the library. All that remained of the collection were about two hundred books that were 
checked out. The library reopened in a World War II surplus barracks with books donated by colleges and 
universities, townspeople, alumni, and others. Books were also purchased with money raised in Big Rapids 
from dances, card parties, and movies. The barracks library was expanded several times but ran short of 
space. Many books had to be piled on tables until the library could move into better quarters.
Late in the summer of 1952 the library moved into the recently completed West Building. It was assigned 
about the same amount of space that it had in the Old Pharmacy Building and was located on the top floor 
because that is where it had been in the Old Pharmacy Building. The library rapidly outgrew this space. In 
the summer of 1956 the addition of a mezzanine floor doubled the stack space. All of the books had to be 
moved from the stacks and the library staff bought a small incense burner, a copper-colored Buddha, to 
help them cope with the dust and smells. This Buddha resides in FLITE today but is no longer lit.

Once again, the library collection exceeded the space available. As new buildings were constructed, the 
library moved into rooms on the second floor of the West Building that were formerly occupied by the 
bookstore, administrative offices, the music directors office, four music practice rooms and the band room. 
In 1961 and 1962 at the request of President Victor Spathelf, the library staff prepared plans for converting 
the entire West Building into a library. Then President Spathelf worked with Mr. William Clinton (Top) 
Taggart, local businessman and president of Taggart Gas Company, to convert the Lincoln School into the 
Big Rapids Community Library. After that experience, President Spathelf determined that the Ferris 
library should be located in a new building.

From 1963-1965 the entire library staff drafted new library plans on graph paper. A program statement 
was developed and then an architect created plans for a new library on South State Street. Construction on 
the $1,350,000 facility began in 1965 and finished in April 1967. The collection was moved to the new 
location using student volunteers, Ferris trucks, and rented beer cases. During the move, a person from 
town called President Spathelf to complain about Ferris trucks carrying beer around campus.

This facility was built to hold 100,000 volumes with the understanding that an addition to double the 
librarys size would be added within five years. Though program statements for an addition were prepared 
in 1970, 1976 and 1990, the addition was never built. In an attempt to relieve congestion, infrequently used 
materials were moved to off-campus storage and were retrieved by library staff upon request. The video 
and audio collections and the Individualized Learning Center were moved next door to the Instructional 
Resources Center in 1988 and then back to the library in 1989. Health-related books and materials were 
moved to the Health Sciences Library in West Commons in 1992. The Timme Library had become a 
crowded building that could not support information technologies.

The University decided once again that a new building would provide better service than a remodeled old 
building. The need to provide more space for print materials and a desire to create 
a technology-capable facility made this construction inevitable. A library consultant was hired in 1996 to 
meet with library employees and other campus constituencies to identify user needs. In 1997, FSU 
contracted with the architectural firms of Gwathmey Siegel & Associates and Neumann Smith & 
Associates to design the building. 

The groundbreaking for the building was held in April 1999, and the erection of steel began in September 
1999. All of the floors had been poured by February 2000, and the roof skylight was completed in March 
2000. The installation of the furnishings started in January 2001. A library moving company transferred 
the collection through the snow to the Ferris State University Library for Information, Technology and 
Education (FLITE) at 1010 Campus Drive, during the students spring break in March 2001. Ferris Physical 
Plant staff moved the contents of the Timme Library offices, and student employees assisted with the 
installation of computers on the first floor in the Information Commons. A ribbon-cutting ceremony was 
held in the Informal Study Court on March 16, 2001 and the finishing work and landscaping continued 
throughout the spring and summer. 

The runway to FLITE has been long and often circuitous. However, the University is now well positioned 
to meet the information needs of the new millennium.