The University Library is the library system of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. It comprises a network of physical and digital libraries. It provides resources and services to the university's students, faculty, staff, and the broader community.
History of the University Library The University Library came into being before the university with which it is affiliated, as the university board considered it essential that students and faculty would have books waiting to greet them when the university opened its doors. However, this earliest collection was very small and did not yet have its own library building. As a result, the University Library has moved as it has grown throughout its history, a trend that continues to this day. While its collections had previously resided elsewhere, Altgeld Hall (known as Library Hall at the time) was the first building built specifically to house the university's library. Today, Altgeld Hall is home to the university's Math Department; the University Library moved in the 1920s to what is now called the Main Library.
Growing collections The earliest Library collection consisted of around one thousand items. The collection remained small for some time, and in the early 1900s the Library was smaller than those of other large public libraries, as well as private institutions such as the University of Chicago. This would, however, quickly change. Between the mid-1930s and 1940, the library expanded its collection significantly. By certain metrics, such as the number of volumes, it was ranked as the fifth-largest academic library in the United States at that time. A strong library collection became increasingly important to the university's standing and to its retention of students, as well as to the implementation of a successful graduate school program at the university.
The Undergraduate Library (UGL) emerged in part from the surge in collections, deriving both from the influx of the shuttered University of Illinois at Galesburg's collection in 1949 and from the need to grant undergraduates free access to research materials. The Undergraduate Library building was constructed in 1969, built underground in order to maintain open spaces and leave unobstructed sun for the university's experimental cornfield. The Oak Street High Density Storage facility also grew out of the surge in collections. The facility, which opened in 2004, provides a "climate-controlled" environment for the integrity of the materials housed therein, and is kept around "50°Fahrenheit and 30% humidity."
University librarians Early board members' concern for the University Library did not extend beyond purchasing books for student and faculty use: the Library lacked a librarian, and for more than twenty years, between 1873 and 1894, faculty members assumed the management of the small collection. Percy Bicknell, hired in 1894 as the first University Librarian, strove to bring the University Library into line with its counterparts throughout the country, beginning the University Library's tradition of Dewey cataloging as well as creating the Library's first card catalog.
Bicknell was let go in 1897, replaced by the progressive and reference-minded Katharine Sharp. Sharp, who took up the reins as the Library moved into Altgeld Hall, left a lasting mark both on the University Library and the university as a whole. Along with her work in the University Library, Sharp brought the Graduate School of Library and Information Science to the university. At the time, it was the only library science school in the Midwest, and one of only four in the nation.
University Librarians following Bicknell and Sharp have continued the Library's innovative traditions. They have also fought for patrons' right to privacy according to the American Library Association's code of ethics and its Library Bill of Rights. Paula Kaufman, University Librarian from 1999 to 2003, received several awards for her work protecting intellectual freedom and patron privacy, including the Robert B. Downs Intellectual Freedom Award and an award from the American Library Association's Office of Intellectual Freedom.
Online catalog University librarians contributed to the development of online card catalogs, participating in the broader movement towards library automation. The University Library's first foray into automation of library services came in 1974, with the use of OCLC workstations for the cataloging of monographs at the library. In short order the technology was put to use cataloging serials, which was seen as a step on the way to the creation of a fully computerized, web-based card catalog. Hugh Atkinson, University Librarian from 1976 to 1986, made the enhancement and creation of automated catalogs and cataloging one of his and the Library's priorities during his tenure. Atkinson, who brought experience with library technology to the University Library, oversaw the implementation of MARC standards, or Machine-Readable Cataloging. Atkinson's dream of a fully automated library began to bear fruit in the late 1970s and early 1980s, as University Library patrons were for the first time able to request books on library computers.
Atkinson's 1986 death brought with it a shift towards other facets of library automation. In 1994, the Grainger Engineering Library Information Center introduced both public and staff PC workstations with internet connectivity, aligning with technological advancements of the time. For a time, Grainger's web servers ran the University Library's website. In the early 1990s librarians at the university, including current Grainger head librarian William Mischo, worked to give patrons access to full-text article searching and implemented an early federated search.
Collections
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Library is one of the largest public academic libraries in the United States, "more than thirteen million volumes and 24 million items and materials in all formats, languages, and subjects, including 9 million microforms, 120,000 serials, 148,000 audio-recordings, over 930,000 audiovisual materials, over 280,000 electronic books, 12,000 films, and 650,000 maps." Beyond print books, the University Library's collections include DVDs, video games, and comic books. The University Library holds a significant collection of Indian comics, one of the largest of its kind in North America, featuring works in Hindi and other Indian languages. The Library also owns two copies of a brick from Abraham Lincoln's home, both by mason Harry C. Jorgensen (they are non-circulating but can be viewed at the library). Other items in the collection include e-books, microform, government documents, electronic and print academic and scientific journals, audio books, and loanable technology, including laptops, multimedia equipment, and graphing calculators.
The Library Office of Collections honors faculty who are newly tenured or promoted by allowing them to select a book for the Library collections. Bookplates in honor of the faculty or staff member are affixed to a chosen book, and the member's discussion of their choice is printed and made available to the general public on the Library's website.
All Library affiliates, including faculty, staff, and students, can recommend that an item be purchased for the Library collection at any time.
I-Share and Interlibrary loan The University Library is part of the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois, or CARLI. CARLI manages the shared catalog I-Share with 138 members, or more than 94% of the academic libraries in the state. I-Share libraries are able to share books, DVDs, print journals, and other collections with each other. The University Library is the largest single library in the CARLI/I-SHARE system, and as such, its collections are the backbone of the wider I-SHARE collections.
Additionally, the Library participates in WorldCat. WorldCat, OCLC's international database linking library collections throughout the world, allows patrons at the University Library and beyond to access the materials they need for their research, whether from their own library or another.
IDEALS The Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship, known as IDEALS, is the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign's institutional repository. Since 2010, Master's theses and Ph.D. dissertations completed at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have been deposited in IDEALS. Scholars may decide to whom, and how soon, their works should be available. They may choose to make their dissertations or theses available to the general public or restrict them to University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign affiliates. Additionally, they may choose to restrict their work entirely, ensuring that for a period of two years after graduation it will remain embargoed. In addition to dissertations and theses, IDEALS contains research by many of the scholars and departments at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, much of which is freely available to the general public.
Special collections The Rare Book & Manuscript Library (RBML) at Illinois acquired the Gwendolyn Brooks archives in 2014, reflecting its role in promoting literary studies and outreach activities. RBML also holds the Carl Sandburg archives, and in 2013 librarians with RBML discovered previously unknown poems among the poet's papers. Additionally, the Rare Books & Manuscript Library holds personal archives of French novelist Marcel Proust; English writers John Milton, H.G. Wells, and Anthony Trollope; English politician Benjamin Disraeli; and Olympian and former president of the International Olympic Committee, Avery Brundage.
The University Library's Illinois History and Lincoln Collection preserves and makes available a large collection of documents and publications pertaining both to the sixteenth president of the United States and to the history of the state of Illinois. Among other famed collections, the University Library contains strong Slavic and Eastern European collections, as well as strong collections in subjects as diverse as music, literature, history, maps, sciences, and serials. In this context, the term "serial" includes periodicals such as journals, magazines, and newspapers, as well as yearbooks.
The University Archives preserves and collects records, publications, correspondence, and personal papers from or about the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign community. Items collected range from yearbooks, called "Illios," to fraternity documents to newspapers covering University sports, new initiatives, and even world wars. The Archives curates and organizes both physical and digital collections. The University of Illinois Archives is also the repository for the American Library Association's archives. It includes the Student Life and Culture Archives, which, since its foundation in 1989, has focused on preserving documents related to its titular student life and culture on the campus. The Sousa Archives and Center for American Music, in the Harding Band Building, holds many of American composer and bandleader John Philip Sousa's personal and professional archives. The Sousa Archives is also the home of Herbert L. Clarke's archives, as well as those of the late classical composer Salvatore Martirano, including manuscripts, scholarly work, letters and personal communication, and more. In addition to its more well-known collections, the Sousa Archives actively works to patronize and preserve regional performing arts through its Urbana-Champaign Local Music Preservation Initiative, a local music collection at the archive, and exhibits highlighting local music and musicians.
Digital collections