College and Research Libraries


T h e John Crerar Library and 
Plans for Its New Building 

BY H E R M A N H. H E N K L E 

T T I T H E N C L E M E N T W . A N D R E W S p u b -

* * lished his description of a new 
Crerar Library in 1920 he indicated the 
extent to which the now forty-year-old 
structure represented a marked departure 
from the standard pattern of library ar-
chitecture. In the intervening years the 
building and the library within it have 
become widely known. However, after 
only four decades the judgement has been 
made that a new building is needed to 
serve adequately the changing program 
of the library. 

In a very real sense this decision has 
been one of the natural conclusions of an 
intensive review of the library's objec-
tives and policies, which began in 1948. 
T h e initial stimulus for this review was 
rooted in problems of economics, but the 
direction in which the library has moved 
was influenced in a large degree by the 
desire of the board of directors and the 
administrative officers of the library to 
re-examine the collections and the service 
program in the light of current needs for 
library service within the fields repre-
sented by the Crerar collections. 

T h e first stage was an intensive review 
of the library's acquisitions policy to 
bring it more sharply into line with the 
library's original fields of interest: sci-
ence and technology. A history of the 
library's acquisitions policy and the de-
tailed statement of the revised policy 
were published in 1953.1 

Economic factors related to the library 
building have also affected the long-term 
planning of the library. T h e principal 

1 Acquisitions Policy: A Review of the Policies Gov-
erning the Collections of the John Crerar Library, In-
cluding a. Detailed Statement of Current Policy. Chicago: 
John Crerar Library, 1953. 

Mr. Henkle is Librarian, John Crerar Li-
brary. 

difficulties have been of two kinds. T h e 
first difficulty is the cost of physical main-
tenance of the building, and the second 
relates to the restrictions placed on the 
most effective use of space by the distri-
bution of the library over ten floors of 
its fifteen-story building. T h i s combina-
tion of factors led to intensive study of 
the possibilities of a new structure. 

Still another consideration has been 
the relation of Crerar Library to the gen-
eral development of libraries in Chicago 
and the midwest area served by the li-
brary. T h e first serious study of the possi-
bility of a new location took place at the 
time the Engineering Societies trustees of 
New York City were considering Chicago 
as the location for a new Societies build-
ing. T h e decision of the Engineering So-
cieties trustees to remain in New York 
City closed the possibility of a move in 
this connection. 

Economic problems related not only 
to maintenance of the building but also 
to the general support of the library's 
collections and services led to continued 
exploration of the possibilities of im-
proving the library's financial situation. 
One avenue explored was the potential 
advantage of affiliation with some non-
profit educational institution, including 
a review of the possibilities of relocation. 
Out of these considerations came a pro-
posal from the Illinois Institute of Tech-
nology, late in 1958, for Crerar Library 
to relocate on the campus of the Insti-

S E P T E M B E R 1 9 6 2 3 8 3 



tute, which is called Technology Center 
and is a growing complex of research or-
ganizations, including Armour Institute 
of Technology, the Institute of Gas Tech-
nology, and the Central Research Lab-
oratories of the Association of American 
Railroads. Announcement of the accept-
ance of the Institute's proposal was issued 
jointly by the directors of Crerar and the 
trustees of the Institute in J u n e 1959. 

With this decision, studies were begun 
of the library building needs of the two 
institutions and of the interinstitutional 
relations which might assure long-term 
success of a cooperative library program. 
These studies ended with the develop-
ment during 1960 and early 1961 of a 
general plan for a new library building 
and in the signing of a long-term agree-
ment in J u n e 1961. 

A J O I N T P R O G R A M 

T h e appropriateness of a closer affilia-
tion between the J o h n Crerar Library 
and the Illinois Institute of Technology 
was supported by studies of the use of 
Crerar Library collections, which showed 
that among the most active users of the 
Crerar collections the students and re-
search personnel at Illinois Institute of 
Technology and Armour Research Foun-
dation were ranked in first place. T h i s 
fact, however, was not allowed to over-
shadow the importance of Crerar's status 
as a free public library serving the stu-
dents and research personnel of many 
other schools and colleges, as well as the 
library needs of the industrial commu-
nity. It was soon apparent that an oppor-
tunity was being presented to serve more 
effectively the needs of the educational 
and research programs carried on at 
Technology Center and to provide for 

better facilities for all of Crerar Library's 
clientele. Each of these central facts was 
given due consideration in planning the 
library program which the new building 
has been designed to serve. 

Briefly, the institutional relations in-
corporated into the plans for the new 
building and the agreements between 
Crerar and the Institute are the follow-
ing: 

1. A city block has been reserved for 
the Crerar Library building for a ninety-
nine year period, in the heart of the Illi-
nois Institute of Technology campus. 
T h i s area is directly south of the central 
business section of Chicago. 

2. T h e new building will be jointly 
constructed by the two institutions. It 
will be known as the J o h n Crerar Li-
brary building and will be administered 
under the direction of the board of direc-
tors of Crerar Library. 

3. T h e Illinois Institute of Technology 
will place its library collections in cus-
tody of Crerar Library, and the staffs of 
the two organizations will be merged. 

4. Crerar Library will continue to 
serve as a free public reference library of 
science, technology, and medicine and, 
at the same time, provide library services 
to I I T and its affiliated institutes on a 
contract basis. 

5. A portion of the service area of the 
library building will be reserved pri-
marily for the use of students and fac-
ulty of I I T , but the collections and study 
facilities of this area will also be accessi-
ble to student readers coming to Crerar 
from other educational institutions. 

6. A student-services division will be 
responsible for supervision of the I I T 
section of the library and will have in its 
custody a loan collection for the students 



and faculty of the institute. T h i s will be 
an open-shelf collection of sixty thousand 
volumes. Consistent with the general 
policy of Crerar Library serving as a ref-
erence library, these books will be avail-
able to students from other institutions 
for reference use only. 

7. A research-services division will also 
have an open-shelf collection of some 
sixty thousand volumes for reference use 
of all research personnel making use of 
Crerar Library. 

T H E B U I L D I N G P R O G R A M 

A marked trend in the planning of 
new university library buildings has been 
provision of separate facilities for library 
service to undergraduate students and to 
graduate students and research person-

nel. No such distinction has been possi-
ble in the organization of service facili-
ties in Crerar Library although studies 
of reader use have shown that approxi-
mately one-half of the use of the library's 
collections is by undergraduate students 
in technical schools and colleges. Obser-
vations by the professional staff of the li-
brary over several years have led to the 
conclusion that services to research per-
sonnel could be greatly improved if sepa-
rate facilities were provided for the two 
groups of library users. 

T h e opportunity to plan a new library 
building opened the way to planning 
separate service facilities for student and 
research user groups of Crerar Library 
clientele. Conferences with representa-
tives of the teaching and research staffs at 

S E P T E M B E R 1 9 6 2 385 



J I T brought expression of approval of 
such a plan from the point of view of 
various groups located at Technology 
Center. Accordingly, a basic decision in 
the program for the new building was to 
establish separate divisions for student 
services and research services. 

A second important objective related 
to accessibility of the book collections to 
readers. It was accepted as axiomatic that 
an open-shelf collection is essential to 
the use of the student-services division. It 
was also concluded that, in the light of 
concentrated use of research literature in 
relatively recent publications, it would 
be possible to provide an open-shelf col-
lection for research personnel that would 
meet a high proportion of their library 
needs, especially if access could be given 
to a substantial proportion of the ac-
tively-used back files of periodicals. 

It was recognized at the same time that 
a substantial proportion of the collection 
is infrequently or rarely used. T h e prob-
lem in programing the building was to 
identify as closely as possible the rough 
percentages of the collections that would 
be represented in the several categories 
of publications grouped according to fre-
quency of use. Several studies of the use 
of the collections have already been 
made, and additional study will be de-
voted to this field before the final assign-
ment of location is made to the various 
titles now in the collections of Crerar 
Library and I I T . 

General guide lines in the building 
program, then, for housing the collec-
tions were (1) that space for approxi-
mately sixty thousand volumes would be 
provided in each service division for 
open shelf collections; (2) that additional 
limited-access stack space would be pro-
vided for research personnel to less fre-
quently used but still actively needed 
portions of the book and journal collec-
tions: and (3) that closed stack space 
would be provided for the remainder of 
the collections, in two sections: first, a 
fireproof vault area for rare and un-

usually valuable books, and, second, a 
closed-stack area for other little used por-
tions of the collections, shelved in com-
pact storage. 

A third major objective in the build-
ing program was to provide space and fa-
cilities for close coordination of public 
catalogs, bibliographical resources, and 
the loan and reference services. T h e ob-
jective was to bring each of these facets 
of research library services into as close 
association with each of the others as 
utilization of space could provide. And a 
fourth major objective was to locate li-
brary personnel making intensive use of 
the catalog and bibliographical resources 
of the library as closely as possible to 
these facilities. 

These four major objectives dominated 
the planning of the new building for 
Crerar library: (1) separate study areas 
for students and researchers, (2) accessi-
bility of frequently used books to each of 
these reader groups, (3) close coordina-
tion of public catalogs, bibliographical 
resources, and loan and reference serv-
ices, and (4) accessibility of catalogs and 
bibliographies to library personnel mak-
ing intensive use of them; and each took 
precedence over other desirable objec-
tives for a library program whenever con-
flicts between them could not be resolved. 

T h e complex of all decisions on the 
program for the library building include 
all of the normal factors which are taken 
account of in library building planning. 
T h e r e was, however, one major deter-
mining factor which was added to the 
four indicated above and which repre-
sented a departure from traditional li-
brary building planning. T h i s was a 
decision by the board of directors that 
the building would provide space for 
only five years' growth of the collections 
beyond the move-in date. T h e basis for 
this decision was that the advancing 
technologies for miniaturizing texts give 
sufficient promise of becoming econom-
ically competitive with the cost of book 
stack construction to justify such a sharp 

386 C O L L E G E A N D R E S E A R C H L I B R A R I E S 



break with library building tradition. In-
herent in the decision were the expecta-
tions that intensive studies will be made 
of microfilm equipment and techniques, 
and possibly other techniques for minia-
turizing library materials, and that ad-
ditional book storage facilities will be 
built if these investigations prove un-
successful. 

T H E B U I L D I N G P L A N 

Designed by the architectural firm of 
Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill, the li-
brary will be a two-story building 160 
X 282 feet, with total floor area of 
92,160 square feet. T h e cost of the build-
ing will be approximately $2,000,000, in-
cluding furniture and equipment. 

T h e ground floor will be windowless 
except for the center portion of the front 
of the building. T h e second floor, which 
encompasses the main service areas, will 
be completely enclosed in gray glass 
walls from floor to ceiling. T h e ground 
floor is of modular construction with 
supporting pillars on 32-foot centers. T h e 

second floor is of cantilever construction, 
which provides unusually large un-
broken areas in the public service por-
tions of the building, with almost com-
plete physical mobility for the arrange-
ment of books, readers, library personnel, 
and bibliographical equipment. T h e 
building will be completely air-con-
ditioned and is scheduled for occupancy 
in September 1962. 

The first floor will be devoted pri-
marily to book stacks with parts of the 
floor devoted to study rooms, staff rooms, 
a conference room, and three operating 
departments: printing and binding, 
photoduplication service, and the Special 
Libraries Association Translations Cen-
ter. 

T h e second floor will include the two 
reader-service divisions, research informa-
tion service, the cataloging and acquisi-
tions departments, a rare book room (the 
Crerar Room), and administrative offices. 
Points of special interest in the research-
services area are the ready accessibility of 
the public catalog to technical processing 
personnel of the library as well as to 

P L A N O F SECOND F L O O R 

' m e e ii c a 4 • a m * a «S A s a c f n n - i i f 1 1 1 1 : W . " . v * 



reference librarians and readers; the close 
integration of catalogs, bibliographical 
collections, and reference librarians for 
ready access by readers; a bibliography 
section which will accommodate a collec-
tion of more than six thousand volumes, 
and individual study tables provided for 
a large portion of the reader capacity. 

A note on the organization of reader 
services may be of interest in connection 
with its effect on the arrangement of the 
facilities in this area. A three-months' 
analysis of inquiries received by the refer-
ence librarians led to the conclusion that 
both readers and reference librarians 
would profit by establishment of a gen-
eral information center designed to ab-
sorb a large portion of the routine in-
quiries which presently require much of 
the attention of the reference librarians. 
T h i s general information service will be 
provided by a general information and 
circulation department whose activities 
will be centered at the circulation desk. 

Installation of an automatic telephone 
exchange within the library will permit 
location of a desk-panel switchboard in 
the general information center to handle 
a large portion of routine inquiries re-
ceived from outside of the library, ex-
clusive of those coming from the various 
institutes in Technology Center. T h e 
present automatic dial telephone system 

in Technology Center and the system 
to be installed in the library will have 
intercommunicating connections which 
will eliminate most of this communica-
tion load from the library's switchboard. 

Another major change in service which 
is incorporated in the plans for the new 
building is the elimination of the li-
brary's present subject departments 
(medicine and technology) and the in-
tegration of research service now given 
in these two departments through a 
group of subject specialist or science 
librarians. 

T h e only service center common to 
both the student-services and research-
services divisions is the general informa-
tion and circulation department. Except 
for this common point of service, the 
student-services division is planned to be 
as nearly self-sufficient as possible in card 
catalog, reference books, bibliography, 
current periodicals, current books, and 
reference services required for technical 
education at the undergraduate level. 
But it is also planned that any student 
working on advanced assignments re-
quiring more intensive bibliographical 
research and a wider selection of scien-
tific and technical publications will have 
access to the bibliographical and refer-
ence collections and to the public catalogs 
in the research services division. 

Micropublishing 
S e v e r a l years ago, t h e R e s o u r c e s C o m m i t -

tee o f t h e R e s o u r c e s a n d T e c h n i c a l S e r v i c e s 
D i v i s i o n o f A L A e s t a b l i s h e d a S u b c o m m i t t e e 
o n M i c r o p u b l i s h i n g P r o j e c t s . T h e f u n c t i o n 
o f this s u b c o m m i t t e e is: " T o serve as a co-
o r d i n a t i n g a g e n c y f o r b o t h l i b r a r i e s a n d 
p u b l i s h e r s o f m i c r o f o r m s ; t o advise o n t h e 
d e s i r a b i l i t y o f p r o p o s e d p u b l i s h i n g p r o j e c t s ; 
to r e c o m m e n d m i c r o p u b l i s h i n g p r o j e c t s 
w h i c h w i l l serve t h e n e e d s o f t h e ' s c h o l a r l y 
c o m m u n i t y ; t o t a k e a p p r o p r i a t e a c t i o n to 
i n s u r e a d e s i r a b l e q u a l i t y o f r e p r o d u c t i o n 
a n d b i b l i o g r a p h i c c o n t r o l . " 

S i n c e its i n c e p t i o n , t h e s u b c o m m i t t e e h a s 

b e e n c a l l e d u p o n f o r a d v i c e by a n u m b e r o f 
l i b r a r i e s w h i c h w e r e e i t h e r c o n c e r n e d a b o u t 
t h e q u a l i t y a n d i n c l u s i v e n e s s o f a n an-
n o u n c e d m i c r o p u b l i s h i n g p r o j e c t o r w e r e 
f o r m u l a t i n g p o l i c y s t a t e m e n t s t o g u i d e t h e m 
i n a l l o w i n g c o m m e r c i a l m i c r o p u b l i s h e r s ac-
cess t o t h e i r c o l l e c t i o n s . 

T h e s u b c o m m i t t e e w i l l w e l c o m e i n q u i r i e s 
f r o m l i b r a r i e s o r f r o m c o m m e r c i a l m i c r o -
p u b l i s h e r s c o n c e r n i n g t h e a d v i s a b i l i t y o f a 
p r o j e c t o r r e c o m m e n d a t i o n s c o n c e r n i n g 
b i b l i o g r a p h i c c o n t r o l . J a m e s E . S k i p p e r , li-
b r a r i a n o f t h e U n i v e r s i t y o f C o n n e c t i c u t , 
S t o r r s , is c h a i r m a n of t h e c o m m i t t e e . 

3 8 8 C O L L E G E A N D R E S E A R C H L I B R A R I E S