Library of the University of Illinois: world-class status in jeopardy

This is the main building for the Library of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Across the campus quadrangle — and beneath it — is the new Undergraduate Library, which is connected by an underground tunnel to the main building.       Photo courtesy the University of Illinois

Very few libraries merit the label "world class," but the Library of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is one that does. Through its strong collections, its encouragement of new technology, its responsiveness to the needs of users ( both on and off campus) and its hiring of the best qualified personnel — in short, its commitment to excellence — the University of Illinois library has become the standard against which other libraries are measured.

The library's status as a world leader is currently in jeopardy because of a funding crisis. While the library does receive some private funds and grant money, its main support comes from the state of Illinois. State appropriations have made possible the present stature of the library, and without those funds expanding to match those costs and needs, decline seems inevitable. Consider first what has been achieved with state support over the last 120 years.

Illinois, through its flagship university, has created on the Urbana-Champaign campus a library with a highly distributed system: 38 departmental branches and divisions ranging from Africana to Women's Studies. Almost half of these branches and divisions are situated in the main library, which is the largest single unit and is in the heart of the campus. The Undergraduate Library is a short walk away. It is underground and connected with the main library by a tunnel. The other branches are scattered in various academic departments across campus. Despite the dispersion of resources, the library is the most efficient among comparable institutions measured by the ratio of staff to materials, according to the Association of Research Libraries. The library has 536 full-time equivalent staff; 121 are professional and have faculty status.

The main library is the hub. Centralized functions, such as acquisitions, cataloguing, administration, development and interlibrary loan, are housed there, as well as the Rare Book and Special Collections Library, the University Archives, the Newspaper Library and several departmental libraries. The main library's bookstacks contain two-thirds of the library's books, many of them on the 55 miles of compact shelving (one of the largest installations of its kind) in the latest — the sixth — extension of bookstacks.

The University of Illinois library is the fifth largest library in the United States. Its collections — exceeded only by the Library of Congress, the New York Public Library and the libraries at Harvard and Yale — comprise 7.3 million volumes and over 4.5 million other items such as videodiscs, maps, manuscripts, microforms, slides, tapes, compact discs and LP records. The library subscribes to over 93,000 current periodicals and other serials.

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Quantitative measures cannot fully explain the library's reputation. The breadth and depth of the collections demonstrate quality. All areas of human endeavor are supported, whether they lie in the humanities, the sciences, the arts, the social sciences or the professions. Particularly outstanding are the collections focusing on world regions, most notably Africa, Asia, the Soviet Union and East Europe. Subject areas that are especially well developed include the life sciences, classics, agricultural research, maps and geography, music and mathematics. The University Archives is noted for its collection of papers from national organizations, such as the Advertising Council and the National Society of State Universities, and from important individuals, such as alumnus Avery Brundage, former president of the International Olympic Committee.

There are great strengths, too, in its Rare Books and Special Collections. Unequalled in the world are its printed and manuscript holdings of the authors John Milton, Marcel Proust, Carl Sandburg, H.G. Wells, Mark Twain, Rainer Maria Rilke and W.S. Merwin. Also notable are the collections of books printed before 1801, especially the incunabula (books printed before 1501), Renaissance emblem books (books comprising illustrations and verses usually expounding a moral) and books in English of the 18th century. The Shakespeare collection is also very strong. One book that is kept continually on display is the original edition of John J. Audubon's The Birds of America. Each of the colored engravings is on a single sheet measuring 25 1/2 x 38 inches, giving rise to its description as elephant folio. Special Collections also includes the Motley Collection of theater and costume designs and over 5,000 movie and television scripts, including ones from The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Star Trek. Also sharing the same quarters is the Illinois State Historical Survey, with its superb collection of documents for county historical surveys and its books and papers on the Northwest Territory Purchase.

Also in the main library is the Lincoln Room, which houses the Lincolniana given by Harlan and Henrietta Homer in 1951. The collection includes original editions of Lincoln's works, a very rare copy of the Lincoln-Douglas debates and Lincoln memorabilia such as an ox yoke that Lincoln made in New Salem in 1830. The library has added a comprehensive collection of publications on Lincoln, ranging from the most abstruse dissertations to children's picture books. The room has study space and, like the rest of the library, is open to all.

The library did not become overnight what syndicated foreign correspondent Harrison E. Salisbury has described as "one of the world's wonders, a scholar's dream, one of the prides of this country." Established in 1868 by the university's first regent, John Milton Gregory, the library began as a collection of 644 books and government pamphlets purchased with a state appropriation of $1,000. The steady nurturing of the library since then is evident from the university's support for each successive expansion. The library has been shaped by the university administration, by the faculty and by its librarians. The library's development is most easily understood through the achievements of its librarian directors.

During the library's first period, up to 1905, the primary focus of acquisitions was agricultural and mechical books and journals, as befitted what was originally an industrial university. In 1897 Katherine Lucinda Sharp became university librarian at age 32. Sharp was a disciple and friend of library innovator Melvil Dewey, whose classification scheme, revised continuously, is still in use at the library. Indeed, the library is the largest in the world to use the Dewey Decimal Classification. Sharp was responsible for the move to Urbana of the Illinois Library School, founded at the Armour Institute in Chicago in 1893. Until 1971 the university librarian directed this academic department. Now called the Graduate School of library and Information Science, it has its own dean and is consistently ranked the best school of its kind in the nation.

Following the appointment of Edward J. James as university president in 1906, the library was part of a great expansion. Ably led from 1909 to 1940 by Phineas L. Windsor, the library in 1912 set a target of one million volumes and reached it in 1930. During this second phase, the collecting focus was broadened, and some special collections were purchased, chiefly private libraries of European scholars and collectors.

The third phase of the library's development came as a response to alterations in the university's academic focus. After 1930 the university began to improve research in the humanities, social sciences and fine arts. Much of the change can be attributed to the influence of two scholars and their work, T.W. Baldwin on Shakespeare and Harris A. Fletcher on Milton. The scholars' conception of useful material extended beyond classic texts and current scholarship to encompass the bulk of historical materials in their areas of interest. Thus, while the departmental collections continued to add current materials, the library put more effort than it had previously into purchasing historical items.

The library's fourth period began in 1937. Professor Fletcher's own collection of Milton and Renaissance materials was so large and heavily used that the library took over its management and provided a librarian. The need for special handling of older materials also became apparent. The fifth phase began with an initiative of Robert B.Downs, director of libraries from 1943 until 1971. The Rare Book Library was created by consolidating rare book holdings from English literature, Italian history and the sciences with other collections. Library staff built an impressive, well-rounded

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collection and began to publicize the holdings. The first catalogs, of incanabula and the Cavagna Italian Collection, were published in 1950. Under Downs, the 1940s and 1950s were another period of rapid growth throughout the library and included the purchase of several folio editions of Shakespeare, three large collections of letters of Browning, Proust and Rilke and collections on ornithology and parasitology.

Downs built on the work of his predecessors and molded the library into a world-class institution. He purchased and strengthened research collections. He diligently searched for resources and had close associations with the university's administrators. Part of his success lay in the trust he placed in his staff. He proposed academic status for professional librarians, both as an acknoledgement of the significance of librarians as teachers and as an inducement to recruit and retain the best staff; in 1944 the university accepted his proposition.

The sixth phase, still under Downs, was a construction boom during the 1960s and early 1970s. New facilities for departmental libraries were established, the main library building was expanded and the Undergraduate Library was built. The latter was needed to relieve the departmental libraries of the burden of undergraduate use and to create more library study space. The site was a problem and called for innovative design. The Undergraduate Library was built underground so it would not shade the Morrow Plots — the oldest agricultural research plot in the country and a national historic site — but still has natural light provided via a large central well. In addition to satisfying the book and media needs of its demanding clientele, the Undergraduate Library also gives computer workshops, library instruction and term paper research counseling.

Downs achieved much during his long tenure as librarian, including the revitalization of the Library School. He initiated revision of the degree programs, instituted a doctoral program, organized a Library Research Center (which undertakes contract research, on behalf of the State Library, for example, and continues as the country's best such center), established a lecture series and started a new publication — Library Trends that remains a timely and reliable journal for librarians. He was also president of the American Library Association and a prolific author. His Books that Changed the World has been translated into 13 languages and is still in print.

It was during the library's seventh phase that the computer was applied to library practices. This is Hugh Atkinson's legacy as librarian (1976-86). The primary purpose of a library is to make the materials it has acquired available to users. With ever-expanding collections and steadily increasing numbers of users, the sheer volume of business became difficult for the library to handle manually. The computer made possible the creation of an online public catalog that provides instant information at all terminals on the existence and status of most items in the various libraries. By coupling the University of Illinois library's computerized circulation system with those of 28 other academic libraries and 18 regional library systems in Illinois, the library user anywhere in the state has access to over 15 million volumes. The online catalog provides detailed bibliographic data for most items.

During Atkinson's tenure the output of the world's presses increased so rapidly that the library's collections grew at an unprecedented rate of nearly two million volumes in 10 years. Construction of the sixth addition to the main library was essential to house all the materials and to improve their storage.

Before Atkinson's untimely death in 1986, the library's influence had extended far beyond its immediate clientele of faculty, staff and students. Patron access to materials, both on and off campus, was radically improved with computerization, and the library is now the heaviest borrower and second-heaviest lender in the country of materials through interlibrary loan. The fact that interlibrary borrowing is so great despite the library's size is a tribute to the demands of first-class research and the efficiency of the service, and it indicates the impossibility of a single library meeting all present needs and anticipating all future ones. The library also serves as a reference center for the whole state, providing a last resort for the referral of questions that go unanswered in smaller libraries.

The eighth phase is the present one and began in 1987 with

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the appointment of David Bishop. His main concern is to increase funds from all sources so that the library can retain its world-class status. Static state appropriations have combined with inflation, the falling dollar and continued expansion of publishing worldwide to create a very difficult budget situation. Acquisition budgets have been cut. Professional and clerical staff salaries are very low in comparison with equivalent institutions. Preservation of rapidly deteriorating materials is also a pressing concern, exacerbated by the lack of air conditioning in the old part of the main library's bookstacks.

Though the primary source of funding for the library has been the taxpayers of Illinois, the library has tapped additional sources wherever possible. These other funds are essential now, and current fundraising efforts are focused in three areas: the solicitation of gifts of collections or money, the preparation of grant applications and the activities of the Library Friends. One recent example in the first category is the Walter J. Kasura Collection of Russian Folk Music, comprising some 13,000 items of printed and manuscript materials, chiefly scores.

In the grant category, the library in 1987 won a $1 million challenge grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities; the challenge for the library is to raise $3 million by 1991 to get the $1 million. To raise the money, the library is seeking grants from philanthropic foundations and corporations and gifts from individuals. These funds will be used to create an endowment, the income from which will support humanities acquisitions, preservation of humanities-related books and manuscripts, and bibliographic control of the library's extensive manuscript and rare book collections.

The Library Friends, established in 1972, includes alumni and faculty members, but membership is open to all. The Friends are active in solicitation of collections and individual gifts as well as in the cause of preservation. In November 1987 the Friends raised $92,000 through a benefit and auction to help restore the set of The Birds of America. Possibly the Friends' largest fundraising effort will be in assisting with the challenge grant. An initial telefund campaign conducted last March raised over $46,000.

The increasing effort to obtain private support and grants is no substitute for regular state appropriations. In the past, state government has recognized the leadership provided by the library, for example, by funding the development of circulation and electronic catalog systems. Unfortunately, during the last few years the state of Illinois has effectively reduced its financial support of the library.

The allocation provided by the Illinois General Assembly has hardly increased in real dollars. Standstill budgets deal a double blow because costs of materials are rising (by more than inflation) and the collapse of the dollar has further increased the prices of foreign materials (40 percent of the journals bought by the library come from abroad). Furthermore, the budget requests for the library, which are formally presented to the governor by the Illinois Board of Higher Education, do not reflect the real need of the library. The formula used by the board fails to recognize that the mission of the library at the University of Illinois is broader than that of

'A library does not deteriorate overnight, but once that deterioration does start, it can't be turned around overnight either'

other institutional libraries in the state, and it does not allow for the severe price increases in foreign materials that particularly affect a research library.

Librarian Bishop is concerned. Underfunding creates "long-term problems for our faculty, [our] students and the citizens of Illinois that could take years to correct," according to Bishop. "A library does not deteriorate overnight, but once that deterioration does start it can't be turned around overnight either." Without significant increases in funding the University of Illinois library will quickly lose its world-class status. Indeed, Association of Research Libraries' statistics show that it is already beginning to happen. Other states in the Midwest, the West and the South are willing to support their flagship university libraries even in times of economic restraint in order to provide excellence and to gain higher rankings.

University of Illinois alumnus Hal Bruno, political director of ABC News in Washington, recently said, "Only part of my education came in the classroom; another part came in those hours spent exploring the library. It's a learning resource that deserves to be treasured and supported." By turning its back on higher education funding in general and on the library at the University of Illinois in particular, the General Assembly has made a decision that has ramifications far beyond the Capitol. Present and future students and scholars, both within Illinois and beyond, will lose opportunities for achievement. The destruction of one of the world's finest libraries — a legacy so carefully nurtured by generations of taxpayers, scholars, students and librarians — has begun.

David Hunter recently received his Ph.D. in library and information science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Currently he is music librarian at the University of Texas at Austin. He is preparing a bibliography of opera and song books published in England from 1703-1726.

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