The Mary and John Gray Library is an eight-story

University Library An academic library is a library that is attached to a higher education institution and serves two complementary purposes: to support the curriculum and the research of the university faculty and students. It is unknown how many academic librar ...

for Lamar University and the Lamar Institute of Technology in

Beaumont, Texas Beaumont is a coastal city in the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat, seat of government of Jefferson County, Texas, Jefferson County, within the Beaumont–Port Arthur, Texas, Port Arthur Beaumont–Port Arthur metropolitan area, metropo ...

. The

library A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...

is part of the

Federal Depository Library Program The Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) is a government program created to make U.S. federal government publications available to the public at no cost. As of April 2021, there are 1,114 depository libraries in the United States and its ter ...

that aims to provide government documents free to the public. The library serves as the university's primary research and study center. Construction began on September 17, 1973 at the ground breaking ceremony. Present at the Ceremony were current

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

Governor Dolph Briscoe and

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who was a Lamar Alumnus. The Ground Breaking took place on the same day as the 50th anniversary of the school. The building was named in honor of Mary and John Gray who served the university their entire lives. The library was officially opened on April 26, 1976. Four floors provide stacks for books and periodicals shelved in Library of Congress classification sequence.

Renovations

On November 22, 2021, the university announced Texas Legislature approval of $44.9 million in capital construction assistance toward expansion and improvements to the library. The planning phase for the three year project began in 2022.

Services

The 8th floor of the

can serve as a reception center for events. The 7th floor holds an open access computer lab hosting 120 computers and a few classrooms as well. The center has three rooms. The Lamar Room is named in honor of former Texas President Mirabeau B. Lamar. The Spindletop Room is named in memory of the

Spindletop Spindletop is an oil field located in the southern portion of Beaumont, Texas, in the United States. The Spindletop dome was derived from the Louann Salt evaporite layer of the Jurassic geologic period. On January 10, 1901, a well at Spindleto ...

oil discovery in Beaumont. The Plummer room is named for previous head librarian ''Miss Julia Plummer''. As the primary research reference for the university the library provides *Indexes and Databases *Interlibrary Loan *Study Rooms *Reference Services The Library can accommodate 850 students between seating areas, the

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, and the 17 study rooms in the building.

Photo gallery

Image:LUMJGrayLibraryNightLight.jpg, Mary and John Gray Library at Night Image:MJGrayLibraryTrees.JPG, Front Facade

External links

*https://www.lamar.edu/library/

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gray Library Library buildings completed in 1976 Lamar University Education in Beaumont, Texas Buildings and structures in Beaumont, Texas Federal depository libraries Libraries in Jefferson County, Texas