Gifts that Benefit Everyone

Libraries have played a major role in the life of Clara Hoover.

As a child growing up on a farm near Rolfe, Iowa, she remembers going into town on Saturdays and checking out books from the library for the upcoming week.

Her mother, Marion, was a librarian in Rolfe for a number of years.

“She started about the time that ‘The Music Man’ came out,” Clara said. “My mother said she could do that — she could be ‘Marion the Librarian’ just like in the musical.”

At the same time, Clara’s library career began while she was an undergraduate at Iowa State University and continued when she worked in a small library at the Pentagon near Washington, D.C. That was followed by stints in libraries at Ames High School, Iowa State and, for a number of years, Millard South High School in suburban Omaha, Neb.

Her car’s license plate is even “READ.”

“There was just something I liked about it — about being a librarian,” said the 1964 English and speech graduate, who later received an M.S.L.S. degree from Western Reserve University in Cleveland and both an M.A. in English and Ed.D. in educational administration from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. “I not only really liked books, but I truly enjoyed helping students and faculty find the information they needed.

“In some ways it’s just like being a detective.”

So it’s not surprising to learn that Clara and her husband, Hal Hoover (’65 electrical engineering, ’67 M.S. industrial engineering, ’72 Ph.D. industrial engineering), have directed some of their philanthropic support at Iowa State to University Libraries.

“A library impacts everybody’s life, particularly on a college campus,” Clara said. “Faculty, staff and students all benefit from the library. It’s not just a physical space.

“Information can now be obtained from Iowa State’s library in any number of places — even if you’re lying on the grass on central campus or participating in a study abroad experience. You can still access the library’s resources.”

And from her professional experiences as a librarian, Clara knows how significantly the needs of a library have increased due to budget cuts and strained resources.

“The power of a dollar has deteriorated rapidly, but libraries still have to meet the needs of their patrons,” she said.

Reduced journal subscriptions and cutbacks in book purchases and services are all the results of such decreases and press the need for external support for libraries even more. Clara said that few people know the high cost of academic journals and the desperate need for funds to continue to offer a wide range of resources and services to faculty researchers.

Clara’s enthusiasm for libraries, particularly Iowa State’s, not only comes from her professional experience but from her days serving on the University Library’s Development Council and the Iowa State University Library Friends.

“A lot of times when people think about giving to Iowa State they overlook the library, and that’s a shame,” she said. “A library is not just for certain people. A library is important for everyone.”