H.J. Lutcher Stark Center Chooses Olympic Librarian - June 9th, 2009

Former U.S. Olympic Committee librarian and archivist Cindy Slater has been named the H. J. Lutcher Stark Center’s first head librarian.

Slater was director of the USOC library in Colorado Springs for more than 20 years and is a founding member of the North American Sport Library Information Network. In addition to general archiving skills, Slater brings specific knowledge of sports, sports medicine and sports-related libraries to her new position.

Funding for Slater’s position came from the family of the late Edmund Hoffman, whose 1,600 volume collection of golf books was donated to the Stark Center in 2007. One of Slater’s primary responsibilities will be to oversee the preservation and use of the Hoffman Collection, along with the related collections of golfing icon Ben Crenshaw and his longtime friend and business manager Scott Sayers.

The Stark Center holds the most extensive physical culture collection in the world and is set to move to a spacious new 27,500 square foot facility in Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium this summer. In its new spot, the center will include two gallery areas – the Joe and Betty Weider Museum of Physical Culture and the Sports Gallery. The Douglas Group of Houston, one of the top museum exhibit and design firms in the nation, has been enlisted to set up exhibits in the two galleries this summer. Emphasizing the sheer magnitude of the move to the new facility, center director Terry Todd estimates that the print materials alone will fill around 2,500 boxes.

Artifacts in the Stark Center cover a full array of historical materials, from magazines, extremely rare books and photos to carnival posters, video, sculptures, paintings and letters.

—Kay Randall, University Communications, 512-232-3910