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Ellis Library employee shares his history

David Truesdell works in the Recorded Sound Center.

Published Oct. 30, 2009

In the depths of Ellis Library, up to the fourth floor and into the northeast wing, you can find employee David Truesdell in the Recorded Sound Center. The center is chock full of thousands of CDs for rent and LP albums for sale, along with quirky pictures and witty comics taped up around the tiny space.

Since 1980, Truesdell has been diligently working in the center, renting out CDs to students and the music department. His job description expanded when the library decided to buy KBIA's record collection, which now sells at 50 cents per record.

While growing up in Washington, Mo., Truesdell became an avid fan of jazz and classical music. Because record collecting had always been a passion of his, naturally he began working at Streetside Records in downtown Columbia while enrolled at MU.

Although he was drafted and enlisted in 1967, Truesdell did not go to Vietnam. Instead, he ended up in Washington, D.C., for two years and then returned to Columbia. He started working on the MU campus and was eventually asked to run the Recorded Sound Center.

He and his wife, Janet, who co-owns 9th Street Video, live happily in Columbia and do not plan on leaving anytime soon.

Truesdell says he likes the "overgrown small town" aspect of Columbia.

The Recorded Sound Center is open 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.