The Book Switch of September 19, 1963, was a monumental event during which Juniata College’s library inventory was moved from Carnegie Library to the newly finished Beeghly Library. The Book Switch signified a new era for Juniata College as 60,000 books made their way to north-campus.1 In 1946, President Calvert N. Ellis began his search for a potential financial donor to construct a new building at Juniata.2 President Ellis and Harold Brumbaugh acted on a tip from alumnus Edgar Diehm to seek out wealthy industrialist Leon A. Beeghly as a potential donor for a new library.3 Beeghly’s grandparents were tightly affiliated with the Church of the Brethren in Ohio, which Ellis and Brumbaugh connected with when visiting Beeghly in Youngstown, Ohio.4 However, the new library would be delayed due to Beeghly’s foundation facing l, when the IRS lost its case.5 Leon A. Beeghly now serves as an important figure in Juniata’s history for assisting the building of the new library, with the new building being named after him. The Beeghly library cost over six hundred thousand dollars and sat alongside Moore Street. It featured space for over two hundred thousand volumes, reader locations, and individual study carrels for four hundred students.6
In 1962, Anne Catlin took the new position of director of libraries and was given the tremendous task of moving the inventory from Carnegie Library to the new Beeghly Library.7 Anne Catlin, Sarah Hettinger, Grace Shuler, and Lenore Conley all carefully planned the 1963 Book Switch and used resources across campus to make the switch efficient and memorable. Over 900 students and faculty assisted in the operations. Students were assigned to one of three groups, yellow, blue, and red and were directed by faculty traffic cops. Dr. Ronald Cherry directed the faculty traffic cops, wearing a big, black broad-trimmed hat, distinguishing himself from the rest of the faculty.8 President Ellis led the first grouping of book carriers and officially signaled the start of the Book Switch.9 The Juniata Band provided cheerful music to motivate students, along with coffee and donuts. The move rewarded their diligent book movers as forty students received different prizes ($5 coupons for the bookstore, records, and free movie tickets), and the ringing of the victory bell in Founders Hall closed the Library Moving Day.10
After the new library took its purpose on campus, Carnegie Library underwent change and was renamed Carnegie Hall in 1964.11 H.B. Brumbaugh acted as the founder for Carnegie Hall and its new purpose as a fine arts center, holding the Col. Henry W. Shoemaker Galleries on the main floor and a historical museum in its rotunda. The unused space in the rest of Carnegie Hall was given to the Arts Department to use for studio space and general classrooms.12 This is where ceramics courses and the campus kiln were first held on campus, until their relocation elsewhere.
“Dr. Cherry directs traffic,” (Alfarata, 1964).13
Photograph of the newly finished Beeghly Library, (Alfarata, 1964)14
Sixty years later, Juniata College once again pressed forward into the future and created a new library space. By using the structure of Beeghly, architects Hord Coplan Macht and contractors of Poole Anderson Construction created a new vibrant intellectual hub on campus.15 The renovations costed a large sixteen million dollars, with the added preservation of Beeghly’s original brick walls and modernist roofline. Juniata sought to integrate the library services with other resources such as digital learning, information literacy, and learning collectively to keep up with the modern age of education.
On December 7, 2023, Juniata’s students, alumni, faculty, and staff all congregated for a ceremonial recreation of the 1963 Book Switch. In 2023, the recreation event was called the “Book Move”, as during Staton Learning Commons construction, the book inventory was in storage in the basement of von Liebig Center for Science. When in storage, Juniata sized down its physical book inventory and gave away large numbers of books that had not been checked out in the past decade or newly duplicated electronically, and the new stacks reside in the lower level of Statton learning Commons. The idea for recreating the Book Switch emerged in the 2016-17 academic year but was halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic.16 Provost Lauren Bowen took a lead role in the 2023 Book Move and led the new transfer of seventy thousand materials.17 The Book Move held a similar commemorative event where the whole Juniata community came together and created a campus-wide experience of mutual assistance. The Book Move also commemorated alumni who had participated in the original Book Switch, and they played a vital role in connecting the two events. Professor emeritus Elizabeth “Betty Ann” Cherry, wife of Dr. Ronald Cherry, was present at the 2023 Book Move, and reminisced on the original experience. Elizabeth Cherry was the daughter of President Calvert N. Ellis and taught history and general education courses at Juniata.18 She stated in the Juniata Magazine that she was excited to have current students know about the 1963 Book Switch and was “thrilled to have lived long enough to see a building that will be a college center.”19 Bob McDowell, class of 1967, noted both experiences with Juniata Magazine and stated that in both 1963 and 2023, the event was all about community and the new 2023 move was “ceremonial, but it honored a piece of our past that was very important.”20
Juniata College students and alumni participating in the Book Move, (Floor, “One for the Books”)21
Both the Book Switch of 1963 and the Book Move of 2023 are historic examples of the close-knit community residing at Juniata College. Both events tie together current on-campus students, alumni, and faculty and commemorate Juniata’s move into the future with the creation of new learning centers. These events would not have happened without the coordination of faculty, an exemplary student body, and alumni who help put the final pieces together for both Beeghly Library and Statton Learning Commons.
Abigail Lauren Scheinberg '27
Bibliography
Biemiller, Lawrence. “A Library Becomes a Learning Commons.” The Daily News, February 2, 2024. https://www.huntingdondailynews.com/news/local/a-library-becomes-a-learning-commons/article_2cdf5987-5c54-52a6-a093-63fc61128882.html.
Floor, Rachel. “One for the Books: Juniata College Transports Library’s Contents in Recreation of 1963 ‘Book Switch.’” Altoona Mirror (blog), December 7, 2023. https://www.altoonamirror.com/news/local-news/2023/12/one-for-the-books-juniata-college-transports-librarys-contents-in-recreation-of-1963-book-switch/.
Juniata College. 1964 Alfarata, n.d.
“Juniata Magazine | A Moving Event.” Accessed February 17, 2025. https://www.juniata.edu/magazine/spring-2024/a-moving-event.php.
Kaylor, Earl. Juniata College: Uncommon Vision, Uncommon Loyalty. Huntingdon, PA: Juniata College, 2001.