YSU library, named for Vindicator publisher, celebrates 40th birthday
By Denise Dick
YOUNGSTOWN
Forty years ago, Youngstown State University dedicated the Maag Library, named for William F. Maag Jr., who served as The Vindicator’s general manager, editor and publisher for more than 40 years.
University and library staff marked the library’s 40th year with a cake and displays.
The Maag is Ohio’s second-largest institutional repository, behind the Ohio State University library.
Maag had a “special love for books,” said Ana Torres, interim library director.
Maag, who died in 1968 at 84, became general manager after the 1924 death of his father, William F. Maag. Maag Jr. later became editor and publisher of the newspaper.
“The library is an essential part of what we do as a university,” said Martin Abraham, YSU provost and vice president for academic affairs.
While materials move to electronic format, traditional books and other written works provide a source for those who need to use original materials for research, he said.
Paul Kobulnicky, retired library director, said libraries have undergone many changes in 40 years and those changes wouldn’t have happened as smoothly as they did without the Maag staff.
“This staff is student oriented,” he said. “This staff is faculty oriented, serving people day in and day out.”
Torres said YSU’s library houses 800,000 printed books, 100,000 printed periodicals, 2,300 DVDs and videos, 19,000 sound recordings and 5 million volumes of microfilm and microfiche.
With a cafe, classrooms, the university’s tech desk, the English Language Institute and research and study areas, the library sees a lot of student, faculty and staff traffic, she said.
The YSU trustees approved a resolution in 1975 naming the new 150,000-square-foot library in recognition of Maag Jr’s generosity to the university and community libraries, according to a Vindicator article published for the dedication.
Maag Jr., whose initials form WFMJ for the television station he started, received Youngstown University’s – the precursor to YSU – third doctoral degree.
The university’s citation read, “As editor of one of the nation’s leading newspapers, with modesty and determination, he persistently blazes the trail to a more important city. He will forever personify a great epoch in the history of journalism in Youngstown,” according to an article printed by the newspaper at the time of Maag Jr.’s death.