Oregon Tech Foundation

The purpose of the Alumni Association is to provide alumni a worldwide network that strengthens friendships and promotes the college as a premier learning institution.

The Oregon Tech Alumni Association is chartered by the Oregon Tech Foundation as an affiliated organization. Thus, the Alumni Association operates under the authority and tax-exempt status of the Foundation which has fiduciary responsibility for the assets and financial activity of the Alumni Association.

The Shaw Historical Library was founded in 1983 by Laurence L. and Dorothy Shaw. Laurence Shaw gathered his collection over a period of forty years. In his own words it was a collection "grown from reading. Each interesting book led to another until there was total immersion in Western Americana."

The Shaws intention was to establish a library to provide students, researchers, and the interested public with a place to learn about the people and history of the area known as the Land of Lakes. The Land of Lakes is generally considered to encompass southcentral and southeastern Oregon, northeastern California, and northwestern Nevada.

Since the initial donation in 1983, the collections of the Shaw Historical Library have grown to include approximately 4,000 books, as well as maps, art, manuscripts, photographs, and an oral history collection.

The library contains materials relating to American western migration and the history of the Klamath Basin. There are significant historical collections on the lumber industry, railroads, logging, local Native American tribes and agriculture in the Klamath Basin.

Additionally, The Shaw Historical Library has been publishing Journals about the history of the Klamath Basin and Land of the Lakes since 1986. The Journals are topical covering a wide range of subjects from the Applegate Trail to the Modoc War; from the history of water rights to the cattle ranching industry. Insightful, humorous, and historically in depth, the Journals offer a window into a complex regional social and cultural history that is both ancient and unique in the United States.

More information on the Shaw Historical Library, including library hours, as well as journal information and ordering can be found at www.oit.edu/shaw.