In the new millennium, electronic reference services continued to grow, with incoming email reference questions nearly doubling to 1,355 questions in 2000-01, and doubling again to 2,650 in 2001-02. February to May of 2001 also saw the testing of…

During this period, computers and later the internet had a growing presence in the library and reference services. The first reference areas to be impacted from computer automation were bibliographic searching and the library catalog. In 1976-77,…

Twenty-five years after the construction of the new library building, the use of space in the Reading Room continued to change with the library. A Periodicals Section opened at the south end of the Reading Room on November 22, 1954. This brought…

The reference department moved into the Reading Room in the new library building (the current Main Library) in September 1926, although the rest of the library remained in Altgeld Hall for the remainder of that semester. In the earliest years of the…

In September 1897 the first dedicated library building, now known as Altgeld Hall, opened with the first professionally trained librarian of the university as its head and the first dedicated reference librarian on its staff. There were two reading…

BUILDING HISTORY The department of chemistry was the first to get its own building in 1877, and was completed shortly thereafter in 1878 with a budget of $20,000. The building was, “one of the best and largest on the continent” (Tilton, 16). This…

BUILDING HISTORY The University of Illinois was founded with a land grant from the federal government in 1862 with the condition that instruction in military science and tactics would be given. The first building ever built on campus was the Drill…

BUILDING HISTORY Smith Memorial Hall was named for Tina Weedon Smith, wife of Captain Thomas J. Smith of Champaign, IL. On August 14, 1913, Captain Thomas J. Smith wrote a letter to Captain Edward Bailey stating that Smith intended to donate about…

ARCHITECT: Nathan Clifford Ricker LOCATION: Urbana, Illinois COMPLETION: November 16th, 1892 BUILDING TYPE: Academic BUILDING HISTORY The Natural History Building was dedicated on November 16th, 1892, officially opening to the University of…

BUILDING HISTORY The Krannert Art Museum in Champaign, Illinois was opened in 1961 for the use of the university and city. Herman Krannert, a graduate of the university in 1912, along with his wife and other donors, offered the museum as a gift to…

BUILDING HISTORY The Illini Union was originally started from the rent of the first floor of the YMCA. The expansion plan was started when the University bought the building in 1938. It was built in 1939 and dedicated by First Lady Eleanor…

BUILDING HISTORY Harker Hall was built in 1878, making it the oldest building with classrooms on campus. The building was designed by Nathan Ricker while he was a professor at the University of Illinois. The Hall was originally called the Chemical…

Mount Hope Cemetery, located on the southern edge of the University of Illinois campus on the Champaign/Urbana line, is the oldest operating cemetery in Champaign-Urbana. Mt. Hope began interment in 1856, twenty-three years after the official…

There would never be another Homecoming game like it. On the 80-degree afternoon of Oct. 18, 1924, some 67,000 raucous fans, jammed into a newly dedicated Memorial Stadium, waited in suspense for the start of the contest against a powerhouse…

Reproduced with permission from the University of Illinois Archives Blog (archives.library.illinois.edu/blog) The University of Illinois has produced its fair share of famous and successful individuals since its founding in 1867. None gained…

Reproduced with permission from the University of Illinois Archives Blog (http://archives.library.illinois.edu/blog/) The earliest recorded usage of the term “Illini” appears to have been in January 1874, when the weekly student newspaper changed…

When the University of Illinois opened it's doors in March of 1868, athletics had no part of student life or culture. Baseball teams were soon organized, and in the 1870s rugby gained popularity, but it wasn't until 1876 that the first…

Reproduced with permission from University of Illinois Archives Blog (http://archives.library.illinois.edu/blog) Parades are almost a given at any Homecoming celebration, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is no different. However,…

The University Library was founded with the charter that established the Illinois Industrial University in 1867. The Board of Trustees designated $1,000 to purchase 644 books to start the library. These books were first housed in the office of…