Connors State College

Westbrook Library Learning Center

Connors State College was authorized by the first Oklahoma Legislature in 1908 to provide for the establishment and maintenance of secondary agriculture schools in each Supreme Court Judicial District. Connors was established to serve Judicial District Number One and the State Board of Agriculture was Connors’ first governing board. The school was named Connors State School of Agriculture for J.P. Connors, the first chairman of the State Board of Agriculture.

In February 1909, Connors opened its doors in the Warner Public School Building with thirty-five students and four faculty members. In 1911, the school moved to its present location, one mile west of Warner, and into the newly constructed Administration Building (now Classroom Building).

Connors became a two-year college in 1927 when the Oklahoma Legislature amended the Act that had established the district agricultural schools. Renamed Connors State Agricultural College and still under the governance of the State Board of Agriculture, Connors offered not only secondary subjects but also two years of postsecondary work, establishing its objective of offering a premier higher education for the region.

In 1941 with the establishment of the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education, Connors no longer was governed by the State Board of Agriculture but came under the umbrella of the State System of Higher Education. In 1944, Connors was included in the group of colleges that came under the newly formed Board of Regents for all Agricultural and Mechanical Colleges in the state. In 1988, a branch campus was established in Muskogee.  In 2002, Connors’ name formally changed to Connors State College.

The Jacob Johnson Library served the campus community from 1951 until a new library was built in 1985 during President Westbrook’s term. Named after president, Carl O. Westbrook, the Westbrook Library Learning Center houses the library, a reading classroom, the library auditorium, a distance education classroom and the Office of the President.

From modest beginnings in the mid-1980’s that included a shelf of materials available for students at the Muskogee Public Library, a library service center was opened at Connors’ Downtown Muskogee branch campus in 1989.  The service center included a few reference materials and a couple of study tables.  From that inauspicious beginning, the library service center grew to occupy the entire west side of the top floor of the Downtown Campus.

The Muskogee Campus library currently offers students at the Downtown and Three Rivers Port Campuses the same services afforded Warner Campus students including reference, interlibrary loan, computers, internet access, copier, fax machine, magazines, newspapers, online databases, typewriters, videos, and online catalog.

In 1994, a Library Task Force appointed by college president, Dr. Ronald Garner, re-defined the role of the library on campus and led the initiative to establish a wide-area computer network that now encompasses all three of Connors’ campus locations.

Connors’ libraries provide access to sixteen databases and over 80,000 resource items including books, periodicals, microform, videos and digital formats. Both campus libraries are open over 60 hours per week. A service-oriented staff is available to assist students, faculty and staff with their information needs.   

No Connors’ library history is complete without the story of Roxie, the Irish setter. To this day Roxie’s spirit haunts Connors’ Warner Campus library building nightly. Roxie spent many happy summer afternoons sitting at the feet of her librarian owner in the early 1980’s. Roxie returns to the library each night to sleep in her favorite spot, but she has also been known to visit the president’s office from time to time and to otherwise keep the library building safe from all potential intruders.  

CSC Library History compiled and submitted by

Margaret Rigney, Director

Westbrook Library Learning Center

Connors State College

Route 1 Box 1000

Warner, OK 74469-9700

918.463.2931x6236