![[Front Cover UIC 2005 Calendar]](featureimages/feature2fc2005_200x150.jpg)
2005 heralds the 40th anniversary of the University of Illinois Chicago "Circle Campus." The Library's 2005 calendar commemorates this anniversary and is illustrated with photographs from University Archives of the Navy Pier campus and the Circle Campus libraries.
The Library invites you to to view the 2005 calendar. You can also download and enjoy the photographs in a monthly or quarterly format to use as your computer desktop background.
In 1947, the Undergraduate Division of the University of Illinois at Chicago at Navy Pier -- the students called the campus "Harvard on the Rocks" -- opened its library with 5,200 books that were gifts and duplicate titles from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign library. The library operated at the Pier through 1964, when it moved approximately 135,000 volumes to the University of Illinois at Chicago Circle campus's new main library building.
Designed by the Chicago architectural firm of Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill and led by general partner Walter Netsch, the library of the Circle campus opened its doors in February 1965. It was planned to serve an anticipated undergraduate population of 6,000 with space for 260,000 books and seating for 2,400, although the actual seating at opening was only 1,500. Large structural bays, 30 feet by 45, offered flexibility in placement of stacks, seating, and service areas. Two 90-foot extensions were added in 1968, increasing both seating and shelving capacity.
The architecturally severe interior with its unfinished concrete beams, sandblasted support columns, and vinyl-asbestos tile was softened by English oak paneling placed in front of the utility cores. A late 1980s remodeling of the building led to the formal relocation of the main entrance from the walkway level to the first floor, although the first floor entrance had for many years already been treated as the main entrance. All remains of the second floor entrance disappeared with the removal of the elevated walkways in 1993. During the same remodeling, an attractive west side entrance was added, creating a pedestrian court through the center of the building that symbolically links east and west campuses.
Forty years after the creation of the campus, the library's collections in all sites now number over 2,000,000 volumes, many of which are located in offsite storage. However, information technology has made possible access to thousands of journals accessible at all hours of the day and night. Interactive reference and online chat services extend the resources of the University Library in all its sites to members of the university community throughout the greater Chicago metropolitan area.
The Library will join in the campus celebration along with the University of Illinois Alumni Association at Chicago, past, present, and future students and faculty and staff. Reunion Day, sponsored by the Alumni Association will be held on Saturday, February 5. The day includes campus tours, seminars, and parties, and there will be a special exhibit of historical materials from the University Archives in the Richard J. Daley Library. The calendar of events is posted on the Web at http://www.uiaa.org/chicago/highlights/40th_reunionday.html
![[Front Cover UIC 2005 Calendar]](featureimages/feature2fc2005.jpg)