Semans Library - Books, Tutors and the Quad

A stop on Foothill College Campus Walk, a free self-guided tour.

The building on the north side of the Library Quad is the Hubert H. Semans Library, building 3500, the academic hub of this hilltop. Students come here for books and periodicals, online research databases, quiet study space and help from librarians on research assignments, and they can borrow Chromebooks and calculators. Right next door, building 3600 holds the Teaching and Learning Center, where tutoring is free for students across subjects, along with Pass the Torch, a peer program that pairs students into weekly study teams for core English, ESLL and math courses.

The library is named for Hubert H. Semans, who came to Foothill as dean of instruction under founding president Calvin Flint and then led the college as president in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Before that he had worked on California's Master Plan for Higher Education, the 1960 framework that still shapes the state's colleges.

Students were already gathering on this quad in 1962. Find a bench and see why the planners built the campus around outdoor rooms like this one.

Getting here: Walk back across the footbridge, pass the Campus Center and continue west to the Library Quad; the library fills its north side.

Did you know?: While still in its temporary Mountain View home, Foothill earned accreditation by March 1959, reportedly the first college in California to win full accreditation in under six months.

Photo op: From the south edge of the Library Quad, frame the library entrance across the open quad.

More on Wikipedia: California Master Plan for Higher Education · Foothill College

Semans Library - Books, Tutors and the Quad

Stops on this tour