Like Trinity itself, Coates Library leans on the past to look to the future. In addition to an ever-expanding digital and print collection, Coates Library boasts a special collections room with rare volumes, such as manuscripts by famous novelists and a 16th-century Latin hymnal believed to be the only copy in the world. With more than 700,000 books and bound periodicals, Coates Library still acquires thousands of new volumes each year.
When Trinity first moved to San Antonio, the library was housed in military-style quonset huts.
It’s taken almost four decades for Coates Library to grow to its current size. In the fledgling days of the Woodlawn campus, the University kept its volumes in military-style quonset huts. Once the San Antonio campus was built, the current Storch building became the Storch Memorial Library. University President Duncan Wimpress (1970-76) felt that the Storch Memorial Library needed to be replaced. Deeming the new library a “number one building priority” for the growing campus, Wimpress envisioned a “futuristic” building that would open just three years after his tenure ended.
Construction on Coates Library began in the late 1970s.
Under Trinity President Ron Calgaard, the library developed further and reached new heights of research quality. Trustees and administrators saw that the burgeoning student body was outgrowing the modest new Elizabeth Coates Maddux Library. During the 1980s, the university raised its annual acquisitions budget from about $300,000 to $1.2 million, giving Trinity the highest expenditure per student for a library of any undergraduate institution in the country.
The library continues to expand, physically and digitally. In addition to more books being added to the shelves each year, the University also owns extensive collections of physical media, such as microfilm, DVDs, and CDs. Thanks to newer subscriptions and digital access technology, students and faculty can freely read more current academic scholarship than ever outside library hours. The lower level of the library houses dual-monitor computers equipped with Adobe software, as well as camera kits and 3D printers available for student use. So whether you’re trying to do some cutting-edge research or read Chaucer by the fireplace, Coates Library has it all.
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