In 1967, the Southern Association deemed the library facility and its holding as insufficient, threatening the College’s accreditation.

In 1970, the College added a 4,032 square-foot expansion on the northeast side of Founders Hall, where the library had been houses since 1948, effectively doubling the space for expansions.

Funding for the expansion was provided in large part by Dr. Alvin Dow Powers and his daughters who attended Athens College. The area became known as the Powers Wing.

In 1987, another smaller library addition was constructed connecting the Houston Hall wing of the library with the 1948 section.

In 1990, the Southern Association recommended a new library facility be acquired.

It was decided that much of the cost of construction would be supported through bond issues, which would be retired from student tuition revenues over the next 20 years.

A sufficient facility would cost $3.75 million but the College could only afford payments on a $2.5 million bond issue.

Additionally, $500,000 were designated from college funds and $750,000 would need to be raised through donations.

PH&J Architects of Montgomery provided the building design. President Jerry Bartlett formed a broad-based library committee to assess needs and the group visited other new academic libraries across the state.

In 1991, the College received a Title III grant to covert the library catalog to computerized format prior to the College beginning to use the internet in 1993.

The new library would be 32,000 square feet and would include a classroom, three group study rooms, and a larger space for archives. 85 percent of Athens State’s faculty and staff donated and the new library exceeded its $750,000 fundraising goal.

In the summer of 1996, the collection was moved to the new building, which took about three weeks.

The building was dedicated on Sept. 23, 1996.

23 years later, alumnus Robert Kares and his wife Gale gave a large sum of money to create an endowment for the library.