| Harold B. Lee Library | |
|---|---|
| Location | Provo, Utah, USA |
| Collection | |
| Size | 6,000,000 |
| Access and use | |
| Population served | Brigham Young University |
| Other information | |
| Staff | 351 |
| Website | http://www.lib.byu.edu/ |
The Harold B. Lee Library (HBLL), located in Provo, Utah, is the main academic library of Brigham Young University, the largest religious and second-largest private university in the United States.[1][2][3] The library has approximately 98 miles (158 km) of shelving for the more than 6 million items in its various collections, as well as a seating capacity for 4,600 people. With over 10,000 patrons entering the building each day,[4] The Princeton Review consistently ranks the HBLL in the nation's Top Ten University Libraries–#1 in 2004 and #4 in 2007.[5] Named for Harold B. Lee, former president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the library's motto is "...Learning by study and also by faith."[6][7]
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The HBLL began as a small collection of books kept in the office of Karl G. Maeser during his time as Principal of then-Brigham Young Academy. The small library relied almost exclusively on gifts, donations, and free material from the U.S. Government. When Maeser's office was destroyed by a fire in 1884, his library collection went with it. By the time the Education Building was completed in 1892, a new library had been formed and a room was provided on the second floor of the new building.
The academy later became a university, which spurred the library's growth until it filled the third floor and much of the second floor of the Education building. In July 1924, the alumni association reported that $125,000 had been appropriated to construct a new library building to be erected on University Hill. The new Heber J. Grant Library was subsequently dedicated on October 15, 1925 with 40,000 books and 35,000 pamphlets were moved into their new home.
By 1950, the collection had long since outgrown the Heber J. Grant Library, and books were stored in almost all campus buildings. The lack of adequate space in the Grant Library lead to the location of libraries in other buildings on campus during the 1950s. The Physical Science Library was housed in the Eyring Science Center from the opening of that building in 1950. In 1957 when the Joseph F. Smith Family Living Center was opened it contained the life science library on the first floor and the music library on the third floor. The pre-1940 bound periodicals were being stored in the basement of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. The reserve library was located in the David O. McKay building while the attics of the Maeser Building and the Women's gymnasium used for storage as well as a warehouse in down town Provo.[8]
President Wilkinson appointed a faculty committee to survey library needs in January 1953. As a result of the study, the J. Reuben Clark Library was constructed to help accommodate the growing collections of the Grant Library. In 1961, 300,000 volumes were moved into the Clark Library although the building was not dedicated until October 10, 1962.[9]
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"Of all the wonderful buildings that we have on [the BYU] campus, none, I believe, is as important as the library. A library is the very heart and substance of a university." |
| — Gordon B. Hinckley [4] |
The new library was designed by Lorenzo S. Young with Keyes D. Metcalf, Librarian-emeritus of Harvard serving as a counsultant. It was built by the Garff, Ryberg, and Garff Construction Company. Another key figure in the planning and building of the library was Dr. S. Lyman Tyler who at the time was the director of the BYU Library.[10]
In 1973 the name of the J. Reuben Clark Library was changed to the Harold B. Lee Library in honor of the former president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In order to keep up with the needs of the academic community and the Church, construction began in 1974 on a library addition of 215,000 square feet (20,000 m2). This addition was occupied in the summer of 1976 and dedicated March 15, 1977.[11]
As the University continued to grow, so did the library collections and need for additional space. To help fill this need, ground was broken on September 20, 1996 for another addition to the Library. In the four years of construction, roughly 235,000 square feet (21,800 m2) were added to the library, most of it underground. When the new addition was dedicated on November 15, 2000, the library was 665,000 square feet (61,800 m2).[4] Since then, the Library has focused more on digital expansion, adding access to several electronic books and scholarly databases from on- and off-campus.[12] Today, the library is supported by 351 full-time equivalent employees.[13]
The HBLL includes a family history library, the Primrose International Viola Library (named for William Primrose),[14] the International Harp Archives,[15] and serves as a designated depository of government documents. In January 2010 the juvenile literature department opened its Lloyd Alexander Collection, featuring items from the author's home office for students and researchers to access.[16]
Of particular note is the L. Tom Perry Special Collections Library. Named after LDS Church leader L. Tom Perry, the facility preserves and makes available rare unique library materials in original and digital forms. The library holds 350,000 rare books and print matter, over 1,000,000 photographs, and 10,000 manuscript and archival collections. The library also offers numerous exhibits, lectures, tours, and conferences related to its holdings.[17] The collection includes a 1967 Biblia Sacra illustrated by Salvador Dalí, a 1555 Biblia translated by Martin Luther, a 13th-century hand-copied Latin Vulgate Bible, a Turkish New Testament from 1905, a page from the Bible produced by Johannes Gutenberg in about 1450, and four first-edition copies of the Book of Mormon. Other artifacts include four 4,000-year-old cuneiform tablets, six Oscars, and ten Ansel Adams photographs.[18]
In 1983, after the commercial flop of The Magic of Lassie, Jimmy Stewart went into semi-retirement and donated his papers, films, and other records to the Harold B. Lee Library
In July 2010, the HBLL received nationwide attention for a parody on an Old Spice commercial that was filmed inside the library that went viral.[19] In April 2011, a cappella group Vocal Point recorded the music video for their rendition of "Jump, Jive, an' Wail" in HBLL.[20]
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