Chronology of Events
The passage of time brings numerous significant events to a library, some fortuitous, some calamitous. The history of the Indiana University libraries has seen several moves to newer, better buildings with improved facilities, devastating fires and continually growing collections.
1830–1839
Indiana College was officially renamed to Indiana University in 1838.
1960–1969
During the 1960's, the library became an important focus on the Indiana University campus. Library employees and university administrators were coming to the realization that the current location of the library in Franklin Hall was no longer capable housing the entire collection or meeting the needs of student and faculty, and a new facility would be required in the near future. However, the problem remained of acquiring funding for the project.
In 1961, Joseph Sutton, a professor of political science who would later become a President of Indiana University, and Robert F. Byrnes, of the history department, emphasized to the Faculty Council and the administration that a new library should have priority in the next ten year plan. According to volume 3 of Thomas Clark's Indiana University: Midwestern Pioneer, Byrnes said that he "could not conceive of a project that should supersede the library as the no. 1 item in our building program. The only major dissatisfaction with the University among faculty and, even so, among students [is] the library. . . We are now behind and shall lose valuable faculty members if we don't get going right now" (194).
However, university administration did not concur. President Herman B. Wells, nearing retirement, did not see funding the construction of a library as a chief priority. Clark states "while not specifically opposing the Faculty Council's arrangement of priorities that placed a new library first, [Wells] thought such an arrangement might not be in the best interests of the faculty. Wells later made it clear that he did not oppose the building of a new library, but he felt the cost of $15,000,000 would place too serious a drain on faculty facilities and other buildings that had even greater priorities. . . He warned professors 'If we devote such a substantial proportion of the funds to a new library, we are inevitably going to be crowded. Faculty members will probably have to double up in offices; many departments that might have expected new buildings will have to be content with rehabilitated older buildings'" (194-195).
However, while Wells showed caution in supporting the construction of a new library, Dean of the Indiana University Libraries Robert A. Miller was taking steps toward the construction of the building. With the support of the Administrative Committee, Miller had already begun to ask design architects Eggars and Higgins to consider drafting plans for a modern library.
In November of 1962, the Library Review and Planning Committee made its Interim Report II, seeking funding for the construction of a new library. According to Clark "In a pleasant preamble the committee wrote A new library building enjoys the position of first priority on the list of new construction for the Bloomington campus'" (625). Eggars and Higgins were making preliminary studies, and "it had already been decided that there should be two distinct divisions of the new structure, but they should rise above a massive common foundation. Provisions were to me made for an undergraduate library, and more extensive ones for the main graduate library and service divisions. The site at the corner of Tenth and Jordan streets had been confirmed, and this was diagonally across from that of the future School of Business" (Clark 625).
By 1964, the first phase of the building program was completed, and "new plans were in various stages of being drafted" (Clark 195).
Further according to an October 27, 1964 Indiana Daily Student article, another request had been submitted to attain funding for the construction of a new library . A request for $11.9 million to build the library had been designated to appear at the top of the list for I.U. budget requests from the 1965 General Assembly.
In the article, Miller told the reporter that if the General Assembly approved this sum it would take three years to plan and construct the new building. According to Clark "A year later the two United States Senators from Indiana informed the university that the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare had allotted to Indiana University $2,132,456 to help finance the undergraduate portion of the new building. In time, this large new and modern library facility was to become President Stahr's most significant physical landmark on the campus" (544).
However, "it was not until January 18, 1966. . . that specific plans to construct the library were gotten underway. President Stahr wrote Governor Roger D. Branigan requesting authority to award contracts for the construction of the large building. In 1962 planners had estimated that the new plant would cost approximately $12,500,000 and in 1964 the General Assembly had appropriated $687,000 to finance preliminary planning and site exploration. In four years the cost had risen to $14,371,000. Stahr told the governor that the new building was planned to seat 3,000 undergraduate and 2,000 graduate students; the undergraduate section would house 100,000 volumes and the general and graduate section would accommodate 1,500,000 volumes" (Clark 625-626).
"An investment of this magnitude,' [Stahr] wrote, should be kept safely in a building that provides ultimate protection from fire, water, insects, and humidity extremes. The new library center will offer this protection.' Stahr was no longer president, however, when the Library was finally constructed and ready for occupancy, though ground was broken before his resignation" (Clark 626). Ground was broken for the new library in spring of 1966, and upon its completion in June of 1969, the cost of the building would amount to $14,871,000.
On May 1, 1969, before occupation of the new library building, one of two fires broke out in the graduate library's location in Franklin Hall. A May 22, 1969 article in the Indiana Daily Student compared the 1969 fire to a similar fire in 1854. The May 1 fire resulted in $600,000 worth of damage, and, according to State Fire Marshall Charles Hill, was the result of arson, in which a flammable liquid was poured up and down the aisles' (Indiana Daily Student, 22 May 1969, 2). All total, both fires resulted in over one million dollars worth of damage to the building and the contents of the library (Indiana Daily Student, 6 October 1970, 6). The aftermath of the May 1 fire brought a flurry of student activity to raise money to replace the books. Within a month, over $1100 had already been collected (2).
The construction of the Main Library was completed in spring of 1969, and the library was scheduled to open on June 2, 1969, the first day of summer school (Indiana Daily Student, 22 May 1969, 6). Over the course of the following two weeks, college students and professional movers from Pete's and Purcell's Mayflower Movers worked day and night to transfer the 1.5 million books from the new location (Indiana Daily Student, 16 June 1969, 1; & Indiana Daily Student, 21 June 1969, 1).
The last of the books arrived on June 20, 1969, and were presented to President Joseph Sutton and Chancellor Herman B. Wells by J. M. Storms, owner of Pete's and Purcell's. According to the Indiana Daily Student article, a minor catastrophe ensued when a small group of presenters followed Sutton and Wells into the library to watch them shelve the books, and Sutton's book would not fit on the shelf.
At this time, an advertisement ran in the Indiana Daily Student encouraging students to come try out the new library cafeteria.
Though the building was occupied in June of 1969, the formal dedication of the Main Library did not occur until October of 1970.
1970–1979
The completion of the new Main Library building in 1969 caused those at the university to reflect upon the history of the libraries at Indiana University. This evidenced itself in an October 6, 1970 article in the Indiana Daily Student which presented a brief history of the IU libraries from 1829 through 1970.
Finally, after more than one year of occupation, the library was ready for its formal dedication. An October 6, 1970 article in the Indiana Daily Student titled "Library baptism' Saturday" discussed the impending dedication, stating that the dedication is the first in a series of events to take place from October 10-19 during I.U.'s Sesquicentennial Academic Festival. A symposium on academic library service on Friday in Whittenberger Auditorium would kick off the dedication, to be followed by the actual dedication ceremony on Saturday, October 10, 1970 at 2 p.m., on the south lawn of the library (or in the Main Library lobby in case of bad weather).
According to this article, Cecil K. Byrd, University Librarian, stated that the library was "the end product of nearly 30 years of library improvement efforts on campus"(6). Upon completion, the library was "one of the largest book-lending facilities in the nation" (6).
On October 9, 1970, a pre-dedication "victory dinner" was held in the Indiana Memorial Union for 350 academic librarians from colleges and universities in Indiana and from as far away as Australia (Indiana Daily Student, 10 October 1970, 1). Chancellor Herman B. Wells called the event a "victory dinner" because "it symbolized the completion of a project - the Library - first placed on I.U. priorities lists in 1942" (1). Wells mentioned other sites that had been originally proposed for the library, such as Dunn Meadow, or the site of the new Indiana Memorial Union extension and the Bryan House.
2000–2009
In late 2002, IU received permission from the State of Indiana to convert part of the first floor of the Main Library into an Information Commons. Construction began following final exams in December 2002, and was completed in the fall of 2003.
The Main Library on the Bloomington campus was renamed to the Herman B Wells Library on April 1, 2005. A ceremony was held on June 17th of the same year.