Cal Poly’s first library opened in 1903 on the first floor of the original Administration Building. Since the library was adjacent to Director Leroy Anderson’s office, the duties of the librarian were assigned to Naomi Lake, the Director’s secretary.

By 1916 the library moved to the second floor of the Science Building, later known as Anderson Hall. Grace Hill was Cal Poly’s first full-time librarian, listed in the course catalog for 1916 (she was also the first advisor of the Polygram, Cal Poly’s first newspaper).

Plans for the first library building began in 1941 but were halted until 1947 due to the war. In 1947, the Office of the California State Architect submitted construction plans of the new library and classroom building, and after approval, construction began.

Dedicated in October 1948, the $700,000 library memorialized the Sacramento administration Walter Friar Dexter, who had helped secure collegiate status for Cal Poly eight years before. It was the first space specifically designed as the Cal Poly library.

The rapid increase in student enrollment in the 1950s and 1960s meant that Dexter Library could not meeting the needs of the campus. Enrollment grew to nearly 15,000 full-time-equivalent students and the library became badly overloaded, with students crowding into reading rooms and thousands of books placed in remote storage.^[2] By the 1960s, students were calling for new library spaces.

The site selected for the library was previously occupied by six temporary wooden barracks and a mess hall built during World War II. The 36-year-old structures were used until the fall of 1977 for faculty offices and laboratories for architecture and child development, and were then relocated on campus, including the "Z-Lab."^[5]