Eastern Michigan University's (EMU) Bruce T. Halle Library is receiving a makeover thanks to a major donation from the Diane and Bruce Halle Foundation, co-founded by the library's namesake. The renovation began in June and the remodeled first floor will be open by the time students return to classes this autumn.

The project will establish a larger and more accessible location for EMU's archives, make way for the university's oral history program to expand as the EMU Center for Oral History Research, and include recording facilities for oral history projects. Jill Hunsberger, Associate Vice President for Advancement for the EMU Foundation, says the renovation will help respond to the ways libraries, and students' expectations of them, have changed in the last few decades. 

"We're excited that we're creating this modern space so that this space will accommodate the collaborations students want to have now," Hunsberger says. "Students can work together on projects, or work with faculty and tutors from all the different centers that are in the library, from student services to the writing center to the Holman Success Center."

A "game-changer" renovation

EMU Oral History Program Coordinator Matt Jones says he reached out to the Diane and Bruce Halle Foundation when one of his students, Zachary Goins, wanted to write about Korean War veterans who attended EMU. 

Jones says he told Goins: "We have a pretty well-known [Korean War veteran and EMU alum], Bruce Halle, who paid to have this library built and founded Discount Tire. Why don't you use him as a case study?"

Halle, a Massachusetts native, graduated from EMU in 1956 and opened his first tire store in Ann Arbor in 1960. His business would grow into a massive national chain, with over 1,100 Discount Tire stores in 38 states as of last year. Halle moved to Arizona in 1970 and was the richest person in the state at the time of his death in 2018. Jones asked officials at Halle's Arizona-based foundation for any materials they had that might help to supplement Goins' project.
Doug CoombeEMU Oral History Program Coordinator Matt Jones.

Hunsberger says she had a relationship with Bruce Halle and the foundation before Halle died. When the university discussed renovating Halle Library, she wanted to make sure the Diane and Bruce Halle Foundation had a chance to contribute to the project.

While Hunsberger was visiting the foundation's headquarters in Arizona, Jones and University Archivist and Library Department Head Alexis Braun Marks collected material for an oral history of Halle's life. 

The Diane and Bruce Halle Foundation decided to fund the renovation project in part due to its existing relationship with the university, as well as Goins' efforts to chronicle the Halle family's legacy. The renovation will bring major changes to the library, including giving EMU's archives a first-floor location instead of its old third-floor space. Braun Marks says that's "a huge game-changer" for the archives.
Doug CoombeEastern Michigan University Archivist and Library Department Head Alexis Braun Marks.
"It will make it easier for community members to find us, especially for public programs where we really want the public to come and engage with our historical resources," she says.

Braun Marks notes that right now, the archives are so cramped that any group that wants to get an introduction to the archives will displace students working on archival projects in the reading room. She says the renovation and expansion will mean the archives can serve multiple groups and individuals at once.

The space will include three dedicated recording studios for oral histories, which will also be available for the general student body to reserve and use. There will also be classrooms where students in a variety of programs, from historic preservation to oral history, can collaborate. EMU's historic preservation program will be able to move its gallery from McKenny Hall to Halle's first floor. Further, the university's Center for Jewish Studies and Center for Civil Rights and Social Justice will also relocate to the remodeled first floor. 

"This feels like a really great opportunity for our student population," Braun Marks says.

Unveiling EMU's Center for Oral History Research

The renovation also makes way for an expansion of the university's current oral history program.

"We're in the process of creating a center for oral history research that will help us in so many ways," Hunsberger says. "We'll be able to get the word out about the great program and also leverage those stories so that we can be a repository of that kind of oral history, not just for EMU but for southeast Michigan."

Jones says there was no organized oral history program at EMU before he began working in the archives while creating an anthology of performances by Michigan musicians in pursuit of his master's degree in 2020. He found some oral histories in the archives, but says they were just "individual passion projects." They were largely created by male EMU administrators interviewing other men in power, Jones says, and there were clearly gaps in the record to address.  
Doug CoombeAmber Davis, Brooke Boyst, Matt Jones, and Alexis Braun Marks.
As Jones began recruiting students and growing the program, he began interviewing faculty. In turn, faculty became enthusiastic about the oral history work Jones and his students were doing and started telling him about oral histories they'd been working on. Jones says things grew in a "seat of the pants" way since then.

He remembers Braun Marks creating compartments in an old camera bag to hold somewhat pricey professional microphones used for recording the histories.

"We've always done so much with so little," Jones says. "The archives [do] not have money just freely flowing in."
Doug CoombeThe future home of Eastern Michigan University Archives at Halle Library.
He's excited that the center will bring everyone together and make collaborations easier, and that his office, now on the third floor, will be right in the heart of the archives.

"This will give us a chance to all work together, finally," Jones says.

Details are being formalized, but this fall, it's likely Jones' new title will be director of the EMU Center for Oral History Research. 

Braun Marks says she believes having so many centers and programs dedicated to student success located in one place is going to be "really good for our students, who oftentimes don't know what they need."
Amber Davis, Alexis Braun Marks, Matt Jones, and Brooke Boyst at the future EMU Archive location in Halle Library.
Braun Marks says library staff will be able to help students determine if they need a math tutor, a writing center appointment, or a librarian, without having to go somewhere else on campus.

"This will really reaffirm the culture in the archives of working together collaboratively and learning from each other. It allows us to support students, but also for [students] to contribute in a way they felt they couldn't have before because they were disconnected from everybody," Braun Marks says. "We're learning as much from the students as they are from us, so being able to be around them consistently is going to be a win-win."

The renovated first floor of Halle Library will be officially dedicated Thursday, Oct. 17, directly after an EMU regents meeting.

Sarah Rigg is a freelance writer and editor in Ypsilanti Township and the project manager of On the Ground Ypsilanti. She joined Concentrate as a news writer in early 2017 and is an occasional contributor to other Issue Media Group publications. You may reach her at sarahrigg1@gmail.com.

All photos by Doug Coombe.