AI colorized St. Joseph News-Press March 11, 1984 photo of the computer library terminals at the newly opened B.D. Owens Library replaced the old card catalogs of Wells Library when Owens opened in 1983. Northwest embraced computers blindingly fast. Northwest in the library doubled down on a remarkable computer connection, providing a mini-museum of alumni. Jean Jennings Bartik (1924–2011) was one of the original six women who programmed the ENIAC, the world’s first general-purpose electronic computer. The university houses the Jean Jennings Bartik Computing Museum in Maryville, which honors her work and showcases an original ENIAC decade ring.
Since I’m trolling other papers to post material more recent than 1977, I found this article in early 1985 Gallatin article that explains the techie background of Northwest’s efforts
Gallatin North Missourian February 6, 1985 (part 2)
As recently as six years ago, Northwest Missouri State University’s academic computing service was a single teletype. But today, because the University established computing services for its student body of some 5,000 as a high priority, Northwest is a leader with a highly integrated network of personal, mini, and mainframe computers that serve the student body, the faculty, and the administrative staff. Northwest’s computer network is currently supporting nearly 300 terminals (input/output), including a touch screen campus directory in the B.D. Owens Library and software that lets students, faculty, and staff on campus request and receive computer-generated voice-like information from the mainframe computers via telephone by merely touching the proper series of buttons on a touch-tone telephone.
With this latter system, students can access enrollment information on which classes for the coming semester are full or open, and how many seats remain in those open classes. In addition, faculty and staff can ask the computer how much money remains in their office budgets and receive up-to-date balance information from the mainframe computers. The telephone link with the mainframe computers is known as Touch Tone Talker at the University and is the first academic interactive voice synthesizer in Missouri. It was made possible by an Amoco grant to Northwest Missouri State University.
These mainframe computers include two Digital VAX 11/780s, a VAX 11/750, and a pair of Digital PDP 11s. Peripheral nodes of the network include nearly 100 Rainbow and DECmate II personal computers. Other microcomputers in the network, Apples and Kaypros, are integrated to various degrees.
In addition, the University’s computer is linked to an AMDAHL 470V8 at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Each of the academic buildings on the Northwest campus offers students computer terminals best suited to the academic disciplines taught in that building – some are personal, stand-alone computers, and some are linked to the mainframe computers.
The Garrett Strong Science Building is equipped with 35 terminals, and more than 60 terminals are located in the Owens Library. Colden Hall, where the School of Business and Government is located, as well as many other academic departments, including the English Department and faculty, has nearly 40 computing stations for student use. And there are terminals located in various faculty and administrative offices.
Examples of specialized computer usage on the Northwest campus are terminals in the Industrial Arts Education and Technology Department, on which drafting and mechanical drawing are taught; terminals in the School of Business and Government, on which students learn such skills as accounting and touch typing in a unique typing program developed by Northwest faculty members.
Computers also keep track of hundreds of budgets used by the many offices and faculty members; they generate news stories about the University in the Office of News and Information; and link the University’s Graduate Center in St. Joseph with the computer network on the Maryville campus and to the AMDAHL at the University of Missouri.
Northwest Missouri State University’s Computer Science program for its students is designed to develop’ a broad base of knowledge and understanding and technical expertise that are currently needed and that our society will increasingly demand in the future. The University offers computer-related major areas of study in Agriculture/Computer Science, Computer Aided Drafting, Management/Data Processing, Computer Science at the undergraduate level, and School Computer Studies at the master’s degree level.
- Northwest put a terminal in the library, and suddenly everyone’s major included “how fast can I learn to panic about a blinking cursor.”
- In 1983, the Wells card catalog went digital — they called it “card catalog 2.0,” a.k.a. the first thing the printers ever mourned.
- NW rolled out a master’s in CS so fast you could hear the cassette tapes screeching to keep up.
- The campus motto used to be “Knowledge for Service.” In 1983, it became “Knowledge for Service — now with fewer slips of paper.”
- Alumni tours now point to the Bartik exhibit and say, “Yes, she programmed ENIAC. No, she won’t fix your home modem.”
- The library terminal was so text‑based that the hedges outside were offended they weren’t ASCII art.
- Northwest embraced computers so hard they tried to add binary to the school fight song: 0101 GO BEARCATS.
- The surprise master’s program was the academic equivalent of finding a smartphone in your grandma’s quilting basket.
- You could tell it was 1983 on campus because everybody suddenly owned a calculator like it was a luxury watch.
- The Wells Library card catalog didn’t retire — it just asked for a desk job with better lighting.
- They rolled out a text terminal catalog in the library. Students spent less time searching for books and more time arguing which key was “ANY key.”
- Northwest announced a CS master’s, and the football team asked if there was a playbook algorithm. Coach said, “Yes — it’s called recursion: run until they stop you.”
- The university added terminals next to the card catalog. The card catalog felt obsolete … until it found work as vintage wall decor in a very hip campus coffee shop.
- Students loved the new text search. It was the first time anyone at Northwest typed “sophomore” and didn’t mean it emotionally.
- The Jean Jennings Bartik exhibit celebrated ENIAC’s history. Freshmen walked in thinking “museum” meant “interactive tutorial.”
- 16. You know you’re at a small‑town school that went full tech in 1983 when the library has a blinking terminal, and the dean keeps apologizing to the hedges for the noise. They called it “modernization.” The hedges called it “the end of civilization.”
- Northwest added a CS master’s program out of nowhere — it was like a quilting circle announcing a startup incubator. One meeting, one casserole, one IPO later.
- The Library terminal was text‑only, which meant searching for books doubled as practice for writing angry notes to your future self in 80 characters.
- Jean Jennings Bartik gets the mini‑museum — she programmed the very first general‑purpose computer. Northwest students queue up respectfully, then ask if ENIAC came with Wi‑Fi.
- The surprise was perfect: a small Midwest college, a full embrace of computers, and a master’s in CS. It’s the academic equivalent of your uncle showing up in a Tesla and saying, “I’ve always believed in electric tractors.”
Nicknames for Maryville as a Tech Hub
- ENIAC Valley
- Microchip Missouri
- Silicon Nodaway
- Midwest Microchip Hub
- Midwest Mainframe
- Circuit County Seat
- Digital Prairie
- Maryville Tech Grove
- Nodaway Node
- The Pixel Plains
- The Binary Basin
- ENIAC Alley