Vincent E. McKelvey Federal Building - Menlo Park, CA - People-Named Places on Waymarking.com

The Place:
The following article is taken from the Country Almanac, dated 7/3/1996 that describes the events surrounding this building:

'Major step forward,' says director of USGS at dedication of building

For the first time, Menlo Park has an official federal building.

On a sunny Friday morning, the Menlo-Atherton Jazz band played and five members of the Naval Air Reserve Santa Clara Color Guard presented the flags at the dedication of the big building that has been under construction for two years beside Middlefield Road on the campus of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in Menlo Park.

No the Vincent E. McKelvey Federal Building houses the 300,000 volume Earth Sciences Library, the largest in the western United States, as well as offices and laboratories of the Division of Water Resources. Other activities in the building include geologic mapping, volcano hazards research, marine and coastal studies, and oil and gas resource assessments.

"We're taking a major step forward," said Dr. Gordon Eaton, national head of the agency whose motto is "Earth Science in the public interest."

Dr. Eaton listed some of the new programs the Survey is undertaking, such as four new volcano observatories in the Aleutian Islands. "These are crucial and vital to keep our air lanes open," he said.

Menlo Park Mayor Bob Burmeister noted that USGS is a partner with Menlo Park in studying the ground water aquifer underlying the city.

The 96,700-square-foot, $42 million building was authorized by Congress in 1991, long before the Republican revolution and Contract with America threatened the very existence of the USGS. The building represents long-term savings, say USGS officials, because the library and many of the water resource facilities have been occupying expensive leased space.

Scientists, many of whom have been working in trailers or laboratories not specifically designed for their work, have now moved into the modern building with state-of-the-art equipment.

Office windows are square, laboratory windows are round, says Public Affairs Officer Pat Jorgenson as she led a tour last Friday. Corridor wall look like warm brown tile, but are actually recycled waste lumber. Embedded in the floors are decorative brass oak leaves -- in memory of the two trees that had to be cut down for the building. However eight oaks were saved, Ms. Jorgenson said.

The main entrance to the building at 345 Middlefield Road leads to the library, which is open to the public from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays.

The building is named in honor of Vincent E. McKelvey, the ninth director of USGS, who joined it in 1941 and worked there until his death in 1987. ~source

Another article taken from the USGS website describes the library within the building in more detail and reads:

Not Just Another Library — At the USGS in Menlo Park

With more than 400,000 volumes and 35,000 maps, the library of the U. S. Geological Survey, at 345 Middlefield Road, Menlo Park, is the largest earth-science library on the West Coast, and part of the largest earth sciences library system in the world. Subject specialties at the library include regional geology, seismology, volcanology, marine geology, water resources, environmental geology, biological sciences and cartography. The collection also contains publications by state geosciences agencies and national and international scientific organizations.

Its map collection includes all USGS map series, and those produced by states and foreign geological surveys. All the USGS topographic quadrangles for California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Hawaii and Alaska are on hand for reference, and may be purchased at the USGS Earth Science Information Center, in an adjacent building.

The library’s "California Center" is a collection of heavily-used books, maps and journals on California geology, water, ecology, soils, mining exploration and history. It includes publications from the California Division of Mines and Geology, and the California Department of Water Resources, including historical publications, such as those written by Josiah Whitney and Clarence King.

The USGS Aerial Photo Library contains approximately 100,000 aerial photos, mostly of the San Francisco Bay and selected locations throughout the western United States. Many of the aerial photographs show the Bay Area in the 1940s and 1950s, and therefore offer an excellent guide for comparison to today’s urban development.

The library’s education collection contains books, slides, videos, and models covering a broad range of topics in the earth sciences, designed primarily for use by K-12 teachers. Collections of rocks, minerals, and fossils are available for loan, to teachers.

A larger collection of rocks and fossils is available for viewing in the lobby. Also on display is an extensive collection of globes and depiction of globes, on loan to the library from a retired USGS employee.

Although the primary mission of the USGS library is to serve USGS employees in its nine-state western region, it is also open to the public for research and reference use from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p,m., Monday through Friday. The public can borrow the reference materials by making an interlibrary loan request through their own local library. ~source

The USGS library is located in the McKelvey Building, near the entrance to the USGS campus at 345 Middlefield Road, Menlo Park. It is fully accessible to persons with disabilities and free parking is available.

The Person:

• Please post a comment and distinct photo.
• A "visited" only remark will be deleted.
• A "visited" remark by the 'Waymark Owner' at the time of posting is not appreciated and won't be accepted. If visiting at another time a "Visit" would be acceptable.