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Christina Smith
Daily Egyptian

On the second-floor of Morris Library, boxes of books and documents surround David Koch's office, waiting to be unpacked and shelved.

Koch is retiring on Aug. 1 as the associate dean of the Special Collections Research Center. Koch first came to SIUC as a journalism graduate student in 1961 and was asked to help start the school newspaper, now the Daily Egyptian. He later switched his concentration to English and received his master's in literature in 1964.

Koch returned to SIUC in 1970 as a rare book librarian.

In 1980, he became the head of Special Collections, a rare book collection forming at the time Koch took over. Since then, he has spent 35 years working in Special Collections.

After he returned in 1970, the rare books were combined with a manuscript collection, which had started to grow in the late 1960s and the University archives, which had been headed by Kenneth Duckett, Koch said.

"The three things brought together, rare books, manuscript collection and the University archives, were called Special Collections, with Duckett as the head of it and I was in charge of rare books," Koch said.

Ralph McCoy was dean of the library when Koch started working in Special Collections. Koch said McCoy set the tone for what a research library can do and should do and that it has been a challenge for him to live up to those standards.

Koch said one of his favorite aspects of the job is building the research collections during his time in Special Collections. The modern philosophy collection and the James Joyce collection, which is one of the best research collections in the country, are other collections Koch has enjoyed working on.

"I have enjoyed the faculty and people I've met through the years," Koch said.

Many of the collections in the library are gifts, especially the philosophy collection, Koch said.

During the time Koch has been working in Special Collections, the collections have gone from being listed on card catalogs and printed inventory to aids being available on-line. Although full text records are not available on-line, Koch expects more and more items to become available on-line, such as selected parts of documents to help preserve the originals.

"This library is fortunate that it has its own conservation laboratory, and they do a lot toward helping us preserve materials, again particularly books and manuscripts," Koch said.

Koch said it's good that more undergraduate and graduate students use Special Collections resources for projects, rather solely scholars. He said local residents have come in to look at the collection.

After he retires, Koch plans to work on independent research, while being available as a consultant for the library. He has recently been working with Bob Swenson, associate professor of architecture, on researching Lewis and Clark's connection to Cairo, which is where the explorers began mapping out the area before beginning their journey west.

"David was always pushing to expand the holdings of Special Collections," retired rare book librarian Shelley Cox said.

Cox worked for Koch for 32 years and retired in 2004. Special Collections will be very different without him, Cox said.

Judy Simpson has worked for Koch since 1999 and has known him since she began working in the library in 1987. Simpson said she has always respected him.

"David represents a vast history of SIU Special Collections," Simpson said.

Simpson said his experience with the donors and their descendants has been crucial to the development of Special Collections.

"He has so many connections to so many people from many different walks of life and we will be losing that connection when he leaves," Simpson said.

Simpson said he is a very professional person, but is also very human in his concern for the staff. "I will definitely miss his one liners and jokes," Simpson said.

Reporter Christina Smith can be reached at christina_smith@dailyegyptian.com