Hale Library is the main library building on Kansas State University's Manhattan, Kansas campus. History On October 5, 1997, Hale Library was officially dedicated, ending an 80-year architectural odyssey and ushering in a new world of library resources, both traditional and electronic. The original college library was completed in 1927, making it the first building on the Kansas State Agricultural College's campus devoted solely to housing the library. The historic library has a room of major interest, called the "Great Room" which features murals by David Hicks Overmyer completed in 1934 and highlighting the Agricultural College's strengths of "1) science and industry, 2) agricultural and animal husbandry 3) the arts [and] 4) the home". The preliminary studies for the mural are currently held by the Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art on the Kansas State University Manhattan Campus. Lack of space continued to be a problem and, in 1955, a stacks addition was completed to the south of the library. At that time, the library was named in honor of Francis David Farrell, the university's eighth president (1925–1943). To alleviate overcrowding, a second addition to the southeast was completed in 1970. Growth of collections and services, combined with a severe reduction in quality study space, led to outside consultants recommending that the library be expanded at a cost of $28 million. With dwindling state resources for construction projects, a new means of funding a new library had to be found. Three components came together to fund the project: a federal windfall of funds to the state allowed Governor Joan Finney to allocate $18 million for the construction; K-State students passed a referendum to provide $5 million; and Joe and Joyce Hale, impressed with the students’ financial commitment, came forward with $5 million which was used to fund the last addition to the building in 1997. Without all three, the library addition and renovation could not have been built. To recognize the essential contribution of the Hales, the new library was named in their honor. To acknowledge the importance of the original library and its namesake, the 1927 structure retains the designation of “Historic Farrell Library” and the main entry to Hale is officially known as the Farrell Entrance. Other major donors provided funding to the library including the Kansas Farm Bureau Insurance Co., Andreas Foundation, Archer Daniels Midland Foundation, Dow Chemical, William R. Love, Richard and Marjorie Morse, and Mr.