Shortly after Dr. Maurice K. Townsend took office as the next President of West Georgia College, he visited with Robert H. Simmons, Director of the West Georgia College Library, and asked how long the staff thought the present building would suffice for expected growth. Simmons’ answer was that the staff was worried about what they would be doing in the “second or third year from now.” Townsend then asked Simmons to prepare for his consideration a list of options which the staff thought would be acceptable - with the deadline set for late August.

Simmons submitted a memorandum to Dr. Townsend on August 19, 1975, and, three days later, he responded. “My present thinking,” he said, “which is not necessarily the final direction that we would take to accommodate the ever pressing need for new space for library expansion, is that we must actively push for a new structure which for purposes of description we would call an annex to the current library…. What I wish now for you to do is begin a process of determining the kind of structure, its size, and purposes.”

The drive was on to plan, build, and equip an addition to the existing West Georgia College Library for which the Board of Regents had authorized two million dollars -- $1,600,000 for construction and $400,000 for loose equipment. However, the architects hired for the project, Bull and Kenny of Atlanta, had never built a library. The librarians, who were being asked for immediate information, felt that they could not sufficiently provide it alone. Through the assistance of Charles Stevens, Executive Director of SOLINET, they located Dr. Ralph Ellsworth, Director of University Libraries, Emeritus, University of Colorado, and he agreed to join the project .

Meanwhile, Robert Simmons stepped out of the picture in July 1976 due to illness and eventually departed the library and, in his absence, Sarah L. Rigg picked up the baton. Dr. Ellsworth came to Carrollton and met with the architects and staff - and Dr. Townsend asked for the Library to justify hiring a consultant. In a letter dated August 9, 1976, Ms. Rigg gave the following explanation to the President:

"There were two principal reasons for needing the services of an experienced library consultant. The library staff is faced with the demand to provide immediate statements of library requirements in terms that the architects can understand and translate into a building. Usually a librarian can plan a new library over a period of several months before the architects are hired. This was not the case here. Secondly, the architects have never designed a library building. This is a great advantage since it means they come to the project with no preconceived ideas. In a lesser way it is a disadvantage since it means they have very little idea of the way a library works. A consultant experienced in both library administration and in library buildings could quickly convert librarians’ language into architectural terms."

Dr. Ellsworth was hired, the architects moved forward, and by January 1980, the staff was preparing to move into the addition. Meanwhile, West Georgia College made the decision to name the library and its new addition in honor of the college’s first president, Irvine Sullivan Ingram. This marked the first time that the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia permitted a building to be named in honor of a living individual. The dedication took place on May 25, 1980, with Dr. Ingram, age 87, present.