On May 17 as finals come to a close, the doors to the DTEC Cora Hardy Library will be closed for the last time.

The book, “A century of success: Madison Area Technical College 1912-2012” (available for checkout in the Madison College Libraries), points out that soon after moving into 211 North Carroll Street in 1921 the first MATC Library was established.

In 1968 the library was renamed the Cora Hardy Library in honor of the longtime teacher and administrator at MATC from 1925 to 1964. In 1986 when the school moved to the new Truax Campus, the downtown location remained as a branch library.

So the DTEC Library has been around for almost a hundred years.

Along the way, the DTEC Library has supplied generations of students with information provided in various formats to support curricular and lifelong learning purposes, as well as access to the latest technology of the times. Like the libraries described in Susan Orlean’s wonderful The library book (Available for checkout in the Madison College Libraries), the DTEC Library morphed to serve the needs of the particular patrons at the time.

While information formats and technology changed, one thing that remained constant was a quiet, cozy atmosphere for studying that students and staff remarked upon throughout the years. Sometimes it was just a place to grab a newspaper from the old-fashioned newspaper rack by the old pneumatic clock in the sun-drenched corner and read it in a comfortable chair. 

Many generations of library staff helped students from a wide variety of programs with their information needs and technology questions. After the move of the main library to Truax in 1986, the DTEC library staff reworked collection and services to meet the needs of niche programs while maintaining resources for any type of student using the space.

Notably, Deb Diller was the DTEC Librarian for a majority of the years it was a branch library, remembered by students and staff for getting to know them personally, understanding their information needs, and following through to meet those needs.

The closing of DTEC has been sad for a lot of people and not easy to move on from, so I’d like to close with one of my favorite quotes from the Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Ellen Goodman: “There’s a trick to the graceful exit. It begins with the vision to recognize when a job, a life stage, or a relationship is over and let it go. It means leaving what’s over without denying its validity, or its past importance to our lives. It involves a sense of future, a belief that every exit line is an entry; that we are moving up, rather than out.”