History of the Library
About the Collections
The University Library holds more than ten million volumes, more than 90,000 serial titles, and
more than six million manuscripts, maps, slides, audio tapes, microforms, videotapes, laser discs,
and other non-print material. Records of these collections form the bulk of the Library's
Online Catalog. This catalog is part of the
I-Share Online system, which links
the Library to more than 80 academic libraries in Illinois. Users at these academic libraries may
borrow books directly from participating libraries' collections. Nationally and internationally,
the Library's collections are accessible through the OCLC online bibliographic database and the
Internet.
Among the Library's most notable collections are its holdings in
Slavic and Eastern European history, literature, and
science;
music, especially Renaissance music; 17th- and
18th-century American and British literature; American, British and Irish history, including a
distinguished collection of
Lincolniana; French, German, and
Italian literature, including world-famous
Proust, Rilke, Dante, and Tasso collections;
Latin American history and literature; historic and
modern
maps; entomology, ornithology, botany,
chemistry and
mathematics; and serials across all disciplines.
The Library is also world-famous for its outstanding collection of emblem books and incunabula
and collections, including personal papers, of John Milton,
Marcel Proust,
H.G. Wells,
Carl Sandburg, and
Avery Brundage of the
international Olympic movement.
Chronological History of the Library
- The University Library is founded in 1867 in the charter establishing the school that became
the
University of Illinois. It opens with the school in 1868 with
1,039 volumes and grows slowly over the next few decades.
- University President Edmund J. James, in a speech to the Board of Trustees in 1912, proposes to
create a research library on a par with those at the great German academic institutions. He states
that the Library should accumulate "...at least a million of books as rapidly as possible..." and
that the state "...spend a million dollars to build a new building to house the collection."
- The Library moves into its new building (the current main library building) in 1926. Under the
inspiration of library dean Phineas L. Windsor, the building is designed to accommodate constant
growth and influences the architecture of academic library buildings for decades.
- The one-millionth volume is acquired in 1935. During this period of intense acquisition, the
Library amasses the beginnings of its extremely strong collections in
classics,
architecture,
chemistry,
mathematics,
history, Milton, and Shakespeare. By 1940, the
Library is the fifth largest in the country.
- Robert B. Downs becomes library dean in 1943. By the end of his tenure in 1971, he has acquired
120 of the Library's 177 special research collections and the Library has become the third largest
in the nation. Among the most notable acquisitions are collections dealing with H.G. Wells,
Marcel Proust, Carl Sandburg, Shakespeare,
Elizabethan and early English literature, near eastern history, and freedom of expression.
- Hugh C. Atkinson arrives as university librarian in 1976. Facing a filing backlog of nearly a
million catalog cards, Atkinson steers the Library into the world of automation. By 1978, the
Library becomes the first major research library in the country to have an online catalog. Atkinson
also fulfills his vision of a statewide, computer-linked library network.
- In 1992, the Library begins to create networked databases, including multimedia databases, that
will become accessible both locally and internationally via the Internet. By 1994 more than a
million users weekly log on to the Library's online catalog.
- The
Grainger Engineering Library Information Center
opens in March 1994. The facility is designed to accommodate the latest in both library and user
technologies and includes facilities for digital scanning, multimedia database creation, and
on-site testing of new library-related software.
- In August 1998, the University of Illinois and the 44 academic libraries that participate in
ILLINET Online (the online catalog) switched to a new integrated library system provided by
DRA.
- The Library joined the other state-networked libraries that comprise ILLINET Online and
installed a new integrated library system created by Endeavor in August of 2002.
- Today, with holdings of more than ten million volumes, the Library has strengths in many areas,
ranging from hard sciences to the humanities. The fields most often cited by faculty and visiting
scholars are:
reference and bibliography;
agriculture;
chemistry;
engineering;
biology;
mathematics;
economics and business;
history;
philosophy;
music;
architecture and art;
education;
library and information science;
maps;
English and American literature as well as the
literatures of most
languages; and
law.
Library Deans/University Librarians
- 1869-1871: Henry M. Douglass
- 1873-1893: James D. Crawford
- 1893-1894: Charles M. Moss
- 1894-1897: Percy F. Bicknell
- 1897-1907: Katharine Sharp
- 1907-1909: Albert S. Wilson
- 1909-1940: Phineas L. Windsor
- 1940-1943: Carl M. White
- 1943-1971: Robert B. Downs
- 1971-1975: Lucien White
- 1976-1986: Hugh C. Atkinson
- 1987-1992: David F. Bishop
- 1992-1999: Robert Wedgeworth
- 1999-present:
Paula
Kaufman
Interested in more history at the University of Illinois?
University Library