Libraries

The university has had a number of libraries, both public and clubs, over the years. Collections have been held in multiple locations over the years.

• Henry Hill Goodell (1885-1899)
• Ella Frances Hall (1899-1908)
• Charles R. Green (1908-1921)
• Henry S. Green (1921-1924)
• Basil Boise Wood (1924-1952)
• Hugh Montgomery (1952-1966)

• David Clay (1966-1972) as Director of Libraries
• Merle Boylan Jr. (1972-1973) as University Librarian and Director
• Richard Talbot (1973-1996)
• Margo Crist (1997-2003)
• Gerald “Jay” Shafer (2004-Summer 2016)

• Simon Neame (Summer 2016-Summer 2021)
• Jennifer Friedman (July/Aug 2021 as Acting Dean)
• Sarah Hutton (August 2021-Present as Interim Dean)

• No library building for the first 20 years of Mass Aggie’s existence
  • Supplemented by literary societies and Amherst College begins lending materials in 187?
• 1880: Library open for nine hours a week
• 1883: Alumni Library Committee seeks funds for stone library building
• 1885: 500 Volumes collected
  • Fire Destroys Collection (Redeveloped by faculty donation)

• Built between 1884 and 1885
• First floor is the first official library space on campus
• ca. 1890: 10,000 Volumes
• 1907: 28,000 volumes
• 1910: Chapel is wired for electricity
• 1915: Stockbridge Hall and Bowker Auditorium open
• The Chapel becomes the “Chapel Library”

• Goodell opened initially as a library building to hold 135,000 volumes
  • Chapel becomes “Old Chapel”
• 1952: Hampshire Inter Library Loan Center opens in South Hadley
  • Disbanded in 1977
• 1960: Goodell addition completed to house 460,000 volumes
• 1960s: A Proposal for Undergraduate Library Services: 1970-1980
  • Beginning of the push for a new library and building programs that result in the Tower Library
• Goodell will be overrun by the mid 70s, need for a new building will be critical by the 1980s
• April 28, 1969: Ground broken on the Tower Library
• 1970s: Budget for acquisitions begins to shrink
• 1971: One Millionth Volume added to the Collection

• 1973: Building opens, move takes place between May 24 and June 26
  • Branches opened at the Morrill Biological Sciences Library and the Physical Sciences Library at the Lederle Lowrise, Music Library in Fine Arts Center
  • University Archives established in 1973
• 1974: UMass Circulation System is automated
• 1977: HILC disbanded, Five College Consortium origins begin
• Labor Day Weekend 1979: Tower Library closed for an indeterminate amount of time
  • Dec. 5, 1979: Tower opened for limited use, deck remains closed
  • Dec. 13, 1979: 500 person occcupancy limit
  • Expected to return to normal use in 1982
• 1980s: Automation of the Five College Consortium System
• Beginning of serious campus financial crises
  • Acquisitions budget falls in fiscal years 1982-86, rises 1986-88, falls 1988-92, rises 1992-94 (maintains 1994-99), rises 1999-01
• Response to 9/11 is to eliminate library acquisitions funding – drops from 4.5 million to zero
• 1986: Mass Transformation project
• June 16, 1986: Library reopens following extensive renovations to add two new floors
• Fiscal Year 89: ⅓ of the budget bunding is lost, majority of serials cancelled , acquisitions program changes to “austere”; continues into FY 90
• 1990s: Safety concerns begin to be raised by students

• Second Student movement convinces Board of Trustees to rename the Tower Library
  • September 1996: Calipari Room opens
• 2000: UMass Libraries Shared Digital Repository for the five UMass campuses
  • December 2000: Three Millionth Volume Added
• Fiscal Year 01: Digital Databases begin to be collected
  • Supplement the Serials being cut due to budget cuts
• September 2001: Physical and Biological Science Libraries combine to form the Integrated Science and Engineering Library/ISEL opens February 2004?
  • Name drops the word “Integrated” in the early 2010s
  • Response to 9/11
  • Budget from state reduced from $14-11 Million, $1 Million of the acquisitions budget is lost
• October 2001: Music Reserves Library integrated into Du Bois, Reserves Lab remains in Fine Art Center with heavily used materials
• December 2001: Book purchases are halted due to budget restraints, $1 Million in journals cancelled
• October 2005: Learning Commons dedicated
  • Additional donation by Microsoft in June 2006
  • Renovations to 2nd and 3rd floor financed
  • Expansion into User Services rather than a book depository
• 2006: 90% increase in student use of the library since Learning Commons dedication
• 2010: Renovations are completed bringing the Learning Commons and lower floors to their current state (a project which began in 2005 and went into high gear in 2010)
• 2011: Team Based Learning Classroom opens in the Learning Commons
  • Open Access initiatives begin in conjunction with the Provost's office
• 2012: Multimedia Commons at early stages (becomes the Digital Media Lab)
  • Cafe moves to its current Location
• 2014: Open Access initiatives continue
• March 13, 2020: staff and librarians sent home as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Remote work begins
• August 2, 2021: staff and librarians return to work on campus amid ongoing COVID-19 pandemic