University Professor Kevin Starr reflected on the past and future of Doheny Memorial Library to begin the library’s 75th anniversary celebrations.

Students, faculty and alumni – as well as Provost C. L. Max Nikias, campus leaders and representatives of the Doheny family – filled the Doheny Memorial Library’s Intellectual Commons for Starr’s historic lecture, “Tragedy and Legacy: The Doheny Library Turns 75; Epicenter of Humanism.”

In the address, the USC College professor and California State Librarian Emeritus traced the library’s origins along with the historical evolution of libraries as protectors of human knowledge.

“Libraries stand for the integration of all knowledge, showing how universities can be larger than the sum of their parts,” Starr said. “The library represents the unity of the diversity of academic pursuits on campus. A great university library suggests that the world can be held together.”

Starr’s lecture interwove the story of the Doheny family’s commitment to learning with the history of libraries from Greek and Roman civilizations to the present day.

He described Carrie Estelle Doheny, Edward Jr.’s stepmother, as “a remarkable bibliophile” who saw book collecting primarily as an avenue for self-education, much like autodidacts Benjamin Franklin and Abraham Lincoln.

After Edward Jr.’s death in 1929, “The Dohenys decided to build a great university library as a memorial to their son,” Starr said.

Like the Royal Library of Alexandria and other famed libraries from the Roman-Hellenic word, Starr said, Doheny Library plays a vital role in the creation of knowledge. “At the library of Alexandria, poets and historians gathered to read works in progress…. This was the original form of publication, to announce the arrival of a new work.”

While reflecting on the origins of Doheny, Starr looked forward to its future.

“The argument about whether digital storage will replace libraries is passé,” he said. “All the great institutions of higher learning have kept their libraries together. All of us share the deepest aspirations for USC, and we’ll bring the same excellence to the libraries that we demand from other departments.”

Starr concluded by noting Doheny’s majestic atmosphere and predicting that Trojans likely would gather 75 years from now to reflect on further achievements. “There is a poetry,” he said, “in the marvelous golden, sepia light that the library creates through its interaction with the Southern California sunshine.”

Dean Catherine Quinlan of the USC Libraries introduced Starr to the standing-room-only audience. “Seventy-five years ago, the vision and generosity of the Doheny family gave us this library,” she said. “It is a monument to the truth of the proverb above the entrance to the Nazarian Pavilion – that ‘wise men lay up knowledge.’

“This library has grown into an emblem of the university itself. Its unmistakable – and ubiquitous – façade, in a mere glance, communicates the import of the library and the longevity, the achievement and the intellectual substance of the university for which it stands as a symbol.”

Students gained insight into the history behind Doheny’s large presence on campus.

Linguistics and international relations major Caroline Cha said, “You can feel a sense of peace, calm and scholarship permeating the building. It motivates me to learn more and get as much as I can out of my studies. The lecture added a new dimension to my understanding of Doheny.”

University leaders came away with a similar impression. Dean Robert Rasmussen of the USC Gould School of Law said, “Both professor Starr's lecture and Doheny Library itself remind us that there is no such thing as a great university without a great library.

“As we prepare students for the unique and evolving challenges of the information age, it is vital that we embrace and appreciate the significant intellectual and aesthetic contributions that a place like Doheny Library makes to scholarship and education at USC.”

Starr’s address marked the start of festivities honoring the diamond anniversary of USC’s landmark. Information about additional events and programming offered in celebration of Doheny Library’s 75th anniversary can be found at www.usc.edu/libraries/doheny/75