Merrill  Hall
(From 1950 Kanakadea Yearbook )

The New York State School of Clay-Working and Ceramics was established at Alfred University in 1900 "to give scientific, technical, art and practical training for the manufacture of all kinds of ceramic products" and to conduct research in clays and shales. By 1932 the School had evolved into an internationally recognized College, renamed The
New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University.

The library had grown as well, from a modest shelf of books to an uncataloged office collection of 1200 volumes and several dozen journal subscriptions in the 1940's. The need to develop and organize the library was recognized by Dr. Scholes.  At the 1947 annual meeting of the American Ceramic Society he persuaded Miss Emily Van Schoick, a Fellow of the Society and Associate Editor of its Journal, to give up her distinguished editorial career and come to Alfred to organize a library for the College of Ceramics.

Miss Emily Van Schoick, the First Librarian at The College of Ceramics