An Origin Story

​By Carol Van Why, originally published in the November  2025 issue of the 1666 Coffman Newsletter

John Ullian’s “Old News” column is the first thing I read when I open a new 1666 Coffman News issue. I appreciate John’s efforts to bring those pages from the past to life again. The entire run of the newsletter beginning in 1986 is housed in the Coffman Library.

The phrase “Jewel in the Crown” in reference to the Coffman Library first appeared in the February 1986 edition of 1666 Coffman News. Interestingly, that article’s headline reads: “Two-Storied Library Overlooks Golf Greens.” Today our library is still the “Jewel in the Crown,” while the golf course’s future is debatable.

In 1986, there was no carefully developed, spiffy new collection to greet residents on move-in day. Instead, before they moved in, each new resident was given a quota of books that s/he could donate to the Library. New resident and former Professor of Theatre Arts Dr. David Thompson supervised volunteers who sorted and categorized those books. By December 1986, the books were on the shelves, ready for browsing and borrowing.

We are indebted to those pioneer residents who donated books from their personal collections. Some of those early donations (e.g. art, drama, fiction, and poetry) are classics and still on the shelves today. Their local history donations constitute the core of the Library’s MINNESOTA/MIDWEST collection on the Library’s upper level.

Those early Library Committee members also recognized that there were important books throughout the collection written or edited by Coffman residents and deserving to be in the permanent collection. These were assembled together, also on the upper level, in a section designated 1666 AUTHORS.

Budget, collection size, and usage statistics from the early days are sketchy. However, in an April 1992, 1666 Coffman News article there was a hint of overcrowding on the library shelves. By late 1993, the overcrowding was impossible to ignore.

In a December 1993 article, resident and former Director of University of Minnesota Libraries Edward “Ned” Stanford wrote that the shelves were “bursting at the seams.” His compelling case for removing (weeding) less useful books from the shelves was approved by the Board soon after.

​Today, the Library Committee adds books to the collection based on written guidelines. We keep detailed statistics on which books are of most interest to residents. We try to assign more shelf space to residents’ favorite genres and subjects. We address crowded shelves as soon as we recognize them. In short, we do what we can so that our Library’s collection lives up to its “Jewel in the Crown” nickname.