The Gates Memorial Library named for John W. Gates, a noted Port Arthur industrialist who, among other business activities, founded the Texas Oil Co -- better known as Texaco.
After Gates died, his wife built this library as a memorial to her husband. It was originally given to the City of Port Arthur to be used as the city's public library. Today, it is part of the campus of Lamar State University.
The Gates Memorial Library is located at 317 Stilwell Blvd, Port Arthur, TX 77640.
From the Lamar University website: (
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"The purpose of Library Services is to provide essential resources and services -- collections, instruction in library usage, access, facilities, and personnel -- to our students, faculty, and staff in support of the educational program.
The Gates Memorial Library is one of the most attractive academic library buildings in the state. The two-story Classical Revival building was entered into the National Register of Historic Places in 1981.
After a major $2.1 million addition and renovation was completed in 2004, the library now includes a 50-station open student computer lab, a quiet study carrel area, group study areas, a periodical reading room, extensive stack areas, a microform room, individual audiovisual rooms, a multi-purpose conference room and expanded reference and access services areas. Plenty of soft seating inside the library complements an idyllic outside fountain garden surrounded by year-around patio seating. The on-line public access catalog is available 24 hours a day on or off campus and is part of a system that automates the major library components. The library is open 70 hours and six days per week during regular semesters. Collections are developed in support of all of the college’s educational programs.
Materials are accessible in many formats, including paper, microforms, videotapes, DVDs, CD-ROMs and the Internet. Through password authentication, students and faculty have continuous access to the library’s vast electronic holdings, from anywhere on or off campus. The total volume count numbers more than 45,000 and an e-book collection provides an additional 24,000 titles. The total periodical count numbers more than 26,000 subscriptions in both paper and electronic formats. Special areas feature a law collection, a textbook collection, a career collection, a children’s collection, a Texana collection, a rare book collection and a best-seller collection.
The Gates Library is a member of AMIGOS Bibliographic Council, which provides inter-library loan services to more than 400 libraries statewide and 20,000 libraries worldwide. Other affiliations included the Consortium of Academic Libraries and Learning Resources and TexShare, which provides on-site borrowing services for Lamar-Port Arthur students and faculty at most academic libraries statewide. Students also may use their student ID to check out materials at the Beaumont and Orange campuses and at the Port Arthur Public Library." [end]