Constructed in 1970 and named for Penn State Altoona's inaugural campus director, the Robert E. Eiche Library serves the research and coursework-related needs of the college community. The library's staff supports the college's educational goals by purchasing materials that meet curriculum needs, providing ways of locating these materials effectively, offering special instruction sessions, and scheduling class instruction sessions to help students improve their research and library skills.
The Eiche Library is also home to the Student Success Center. The Center provides a centralized point of first contact to direct students to the offices that can best serve their needs. In addition, the Center provides students who are doing well a centralized point of contact for accessing the services that they can use to take their education further.
In February of 2008, Chancellor and Dean Lori J. Bechtel-Wherry celebrated her marriage to Timothy Wherry through their joint gift to Penn State Altoona that served to name the "Timothy L. Wherry and Lori J. Bechtel-Wherry Study" in the Robert E. Eiche Library. The couple also created an endowed enhancement fund for the library that provides monies for unrestricted purposes.
Robert E. Eiche
Robert E. Eiche served as the inaugural campus director from 1939 to 1968, steering the institution from its incipient days as the Altoona Undergraduate Center through its transformation into the Altoona campus of Penn State. David R. Pugh, director of undergraduate centers for Penn State College, recommended Eiche for the directorship. As he told the local committee, "We are sending you a man who is a builder, an educator, and a fine administrator."