Achievement of tenure and/or promotion in rank is perhaps the most significant event in the professional life of a faculty member. It represents the culmination of years of work and excellence in teaching, research, and service; recognizes promise for future achievement; and welcomes scholars into a community of privilege and responsibility. In many cases, the Library represents a laboratory for faculty as they engage in scholarship. At minimum, the Library serves as a record of intellectual achievement and an archive of all that we have attained.
With this in mind, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library, under the leadership of University Librarian Paula Kaufman, initiated a program in 2000 in which faculty who are newly tenured and/or promoted are able to select a book for our Library collections. These selections are book-plated in their honor, and stand as a reminder now and into the future of the remarkable accomplishments of the faculty at this university. Each selected book receives a bookplate with the faculty member’s name, rank and year of selection.
Books selected by our honored faculty are listed to the right, along with their statements of why the books have been selected, and links to the selection in the Library catalog. Below are images from the event: