Assembling an elite library

Northwestern University's library has undergone change that Greek Professor William D. Godman could never have foreseen when he was instructed in 1856 to "fit up a room in a suitable manner" as a library.

By June 1857, Godman -- who with Henry S. Noyes comprised Northwestern's entire faculty -- could point to a library with almost 2,000 books and that operated on a $2,000 annual budget. From these humble beginnings, the one-room library grew into a library system with more than 4 million volumes, 3.5 million microforms, 40,000 current periodicals and holdings that rank 10th among the nation's private universities.

Surely Latin Professor Daniel Bonbright, Godman's successor, would have been stunned by the extraordinary developments in communications technology that today underpin Voyager, the library's powerful, new library information system. Voyager replaced the automated library management system that Northwestern pioneered in the 1970s and that, according to Charles Deering McCormick University Library David Bishop, is among the 20th century's most important research library advances.

As a pioneer in his own right, Bonbright presided over one of the most important Northwestern library developments of the 19th century -- the purchase of the library of Prussian Ministry of Education Johannes Schulz. That 20,000 volume collection of Greek and Latin classics, dissertations in philosophy, philology, fine arts and history, and rare books transformed Northwestern's library.

The transformation continued in the 1860s when another Greek professor serving as librarian oversaw the completion of the University's first library catalog (at a cost of $25) and, later, the library's move to then new University Hall. The earliest extant library photograph (from 1875) shows floor to ceiling shelves, large tables, gas light fixtures, two stoves and seating for 18 readers.

At that time, the library included 13 periodicals and newspapers from cities as "far away" as New York and St. Louis. The decision by a U.S. senator in 1876 to make the library a depository for U.S. government publications resulted in today's Government Publications and Maps Department.

Students protested the library's limited hours -- from 1-5 p.m. weekdays -- and the policy under which only faculty until 1886 could borrow books. A full-time librarian, first hired in 1885, introduced Saturday hours and eventually created reading room space for 120 in a new facility in Orrington Lunt Hall.

Under the leadership of Lodilla Ambrose, the Lunt Library added staff, further expanded hours and, in 1894, won praise in The North Shore News as "one of the finest, if not the finest college library in the West." With her encouragement, the library sought gifts of books and began listing donors in its report to the president.

By 1919, Lunt Library's walls cracked and floors sagged under the weight of books. Outdated wiring threatened fire, causing faculty and students to relentlessly petition for a new building. The result: the Charles Deering Library, which cost $1,250,000 and incorporated government publications, rare book and browsing rooms, and shelving for 500,000 volumes excluding government publications.

In 1944, the University library became centralized, leaving only the astronomy library as a single departmental library. A special collections curator was appointed to preside over the growing collection of rare books, and major collections in contemporary art, economic history, English and American plays and other subjects and led to a significant collection relating to 20^th century movements.

In 1964, Walter S. Netsch, Jr. of the Chicago architectural office of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill was hired to design University Library, the $12 million edifice attached to Deering that opened in 1970. The same year, the library dedicated the Herskovits Library of African Studies, named for the vast Africana collection developed by Northwestern anthropology giant Melville J. Herskovits.

Today University Library and its libraries on the Evanston and Chicago campuses serve 1,800 patrons each day and employ 200 full-time staff and 275 students. Researchers worldwide use its renowned collections, including the Herskovits Library of African Studies and the Transportation Library.