For 40 years, Steensland Hall was the college's library, also serving in its early years as a center of campus life. By 1907, when Agnes Mellby superintended the main reading room, it included a bust of Henrik Ibsen and portraits of the donor and church leaders. The lower level included the first St. Olaf museum. Built for an institution with fewer than 400 students, the building was already congested by 1920, when the college enrollment reached 800. Some books and periodicals had to be relocated in order to relieve crowding as the collection grew from 5500 books in 1902 to 47,000 in 1939. By then, fundraising had begun among St. Olaf alumni for a new library building. Named for novelist Ole Rølvaag, the new facility opened in March 1942, when relays of students carted books across campus from Steensland.