Theodore Hesburgh Library
The Hesburgh Library and the reflection pool
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| Country | United States |
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| Type | Academic library |
| Established | 1964 |
| Location | Notre Dame, IN |
| Coordinates | 41°42′09″N 86°14′04″W / 41.702598°N 86.234336°W |
| Branch of | Hesburgh Libraries |
| Branches | 9 |
| Collection | |
| Size | 3,000,000+ books, 3,000,000+ microform units, 34,000+ electronic titles, 28,850+ audiovisual items |
| Access and use | |
| Access requirements | Students, faculty, and staff |
| Circulation | 329,511 |
| Population served | 14,000 |
| Other information | |
| Budget | $27,000,000 |
| Director | Diane Walker, University Librarian |
| Website | [1] |
| References: | |
Theodore Hesburgh Library is the primary building of the library system of the University of Notre Dame. The building opened on September 18, 1963, as the Memorial Library. It was named after Father Theodore Hesburgh in 1987. The library has 3.39 million volumes, the 61st largest collection among all U.S. research universities. During his service to the university, Father Hesburgh enjoyed an office on the 13th floor of the library, overlooking the Main Quad.
The first circulating library at Notre Dame was created in 1873 by President Rev. Augustus Lemonnier, C.S.C. and it was hosted in the Main Building; its first librarian was Jimmie Edwards. In 1879 the Main Building was destroyed by fire, and 500 books were lost. After the rebuilding of the new Main Building, a new library was established with a budget of $500 and it comprised 16,000 volumes. In 1888, during the golden jubilee of Fr. Edward Sorin, a new library was opened on the third floor, and by 1900 it contained 52,000 books. In 1907, a professional librarian, Florence Espy, was hired to catalog the collection.
A new building (today Bond Hall) to host the library was built in 1917, and by 1920 it reached 103,00 volumes, that were classified using the Dewey Decimal Classification since 1929. in the following decades, thematic collections splintered off from the main bulk. A separate engineering library opened in 1933, followed by a biology library in 1938, the Medieval Institute in 1946, and in 1953 by the Nieuwland science library for chemistry, physics, and mathematics.
President Hesburgh announced the construction of the new library in 1959, and ground was broken in 1961. The architect was The Ellerbe Company of St. Paul, Minnesota. Construction took three years, and in 1964 the new library, named Memorial Library, was formally opened. The finished structure was 210 feet tall on a site 315 feet square. The interior is fully 429,780 square feet, and has two large lower floors that serve as a base for an almost windowless tower of 13 stories capped by a smaller penthouse at the top. The interior of the floors is almost without walls, but supported by bare columns. This was done to create more free space to arrange stacks of books base on need. The windows were reduced to a minimum in order to avoid uneven light from the outside. The lower floors feature a more extensive use of glass along with brick and tweed granite. It reached its millionth volume in 1972. In 1987 the name was changed to Hesburgh Library, in honor of retiring president Father Theodore Hesburgh.
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