Named for Fred Lewis Pattee, author of the Penn State Alma Mater and regarded as the first professor of American literature, Pattee Library was built between 1937-1940 as a Public Works Administration-General State Authority project. Major expansions added the "Stacks" or Stack Building (1953), "West Pattee" (1966) and "East Pattee," now Paterno Library (1973). West Pattee Library includes the technology-rich Knowledge Commons, Microforms and Government Information, the Arts and Humanities Library, and Music and Media Center. Central Pattee houses Adaptive Technology and Services and the Donald W. Hamer Center for Maps and Geospatial Information.
Construction for a new Central Atrium, Collaboration Commons and entrance to West Pattee is now under way as part of the Libraries 2020 construction project.