David Moses Collection of Purdue University Libraries, Audio Visual Center records

In 1936 the Audio-Visual Aids Committee was formed to cultivate and centralize audio-visual activities at Purdue. The cumulation of Audio-Visual Aids Committee work helped convince President Frederick Hovde to give $10,000 in grant funding to Purdue Director of Libraries, John H. Moriarty to centralize and formalize audio-visual services on campus. In 1950 the Audio-Visual Center was established as a division of Purdue Libraries. The Audio-Visual Center provided departments and individuals with audio-visual resources, consultation, and instruction. During the next two decades the Purdue Libraries Audio-Visual Center grew and expanded as a resource on campus. In 1958 the construction of the Memorial Center (later known as Stewart Center) was finished. The Audio-Visual Center was able to move into a centralized facility. Previously, the Audio-Visual Center was housed in the Michael Golden Labs, the basement of the Hall of Music, and several other locations.

Lloyd D. Miller was appointed as film librarian in 1950 and later promoted to assistant director of the Audio-Visual Center. Miller grew the Audio-Visual Department/Center into four units: Motion-Picture Production Unit, Film Library, Instructional Media Research Unit, and Graphic Units. In 1955 David F. Moses was hired as the Assistant Film Librarian. In 1968 Lloyd D. Miller unexpectedly passed away. Moses served as interim head before he was officially hired as the Assistant Director of the Audio-Visual Center. When Moses assumed leadership, he inherited Miller’s papers of the Audio-Visual Center that were left in his office after he died.

During the 1970s the Audio-Visual Center experienced several setbacks as it lost several rooms to a new computer center and lacked funding to meet demands and replace aging equipment and materials. The Audio-Visual Center was restructured in 1975. The Audio-Visual Center was combined with the Acquisitions Department, Interlibrary Loan, Catalog Department, Computer Database Services, to form the Materials and Audio-Visual Services Division. David Moses was appointed as head of this division and John Wilshusen replaced Moses as head of Audio-Visual Services.

The Materials and Audio-Visual Services Division was dissolved in 1982, and services were transferred to a new Undergraduate Library Services Division. This administrative change coincided with the opening of the new undergraduate library later known as the John W. Hicks Undergraduate Library. The new division and library led to the dissolvement of the Audio-Visual Center. The various units of the Audio-Visual Center were divided between the Undergraduate Library and the Center for Instructional Services. In 1981, David F. Moses was appointed as the new Director of Undergraduate Library Services. He held this position until his retirement in 1996.