Harold B. Lee Library
Encyclopedia
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. The library has approximately 98 miles (157.7 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, The Princeton Review
consistently ranks the HBLL in the nation's Top Ten University Libraries–#1 in 2004 and #4 in 2007. 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."
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.
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.
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.
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 215000 square feet (19,974.2 m²). This addition was occupied in the summer of 1976 and dedicated March 15, 1977.
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 235000 square feet (21,832.2 m²) were added to the library, most of it underground. When the new addition was dedicated on November 15, 2000, the library was 665000 square feet (61,780.5 m²). Since then, the Library has focused more on digital expansion, adding access to several electronic books and scholarly databases from on- and off-campus. Today, the library is supported by 351 full-time equivalent
employees.
The HBLL includes a family history library
, the Primrose International Viola Library (named for William Primrose
), the International Harp Archives, 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.
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. 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.
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
on an Old Spice
commercial that was filmed inside the library that went viral
. In April 2011, a cappella
group Vocal Point
recorded the music video for their rendition of "Jump, Jive, an' Wail" in HBLL.
Provo, Utah
Provo is the third largest city in the U.S. state of Utah, located about south of Salt Lake City along the Wasatch Front. Provo is the county seat of Utah County and lies between the cities of Orem to the north and Springville to the south...
, is the main academic library
Academic library
An academic library is a library that is attached to academic institutions above the secondary level, serving the teaching and research needs of students and staff...
of Brigham Young University
Brigham Young University
Brigham Young University is a private university located in Provo, Utah. It is owned and operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , and is the United States' largest religious university and third-largest private university.Approximately 98% of the university's 34,000 students...
, the largest religious and second-largest private university
Private university
Private universities are universities not operated by governments, although many receive public subsidies, especially in the form of tax breaks and public student loans and grants. Depending on their location, private universities may be subject to government regulation. Private universities are...
in the United States. The library has approximately 98 miles (157.7 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, The Princeton Review
The Princeton Review
The Princeton Review is an American-based standardized test preparation and admissions consulting company. The Princeton Review operates in 41 states and 22 countries across the globe. It offers test preparation for standardized aptitude tests such as the SAT and advice regarding college...
consistently ranks the HBLL in the nation's Top Ten University Libraries–#1 in 2004 and #4 in 2007. Named for Harold B. Lee
Harold B. Lee
Harold Bingham Lee was eleventh president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from July 1972 until his death.- Early life :...
, former president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the library's motto is "...Learning by study and also by faith."
History
The HBLL began as a small collection of books kept in the office of Karl G. MaeserKarl G. Maeser
-Brigham Young Academy:When Maeser arrived at Brigham Young Academy in 1876 it was dying. Enrollment had declined since Warren N. Dusenberry had started the school a few months before. There were only 29 students at the time of Maeser's arrival....
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.
Heber J. Grant
Heber Jeddy Grant was the seventh president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . He was ordained an apostle on October 16, 1882, on the same day as George Teasdale...
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.
President Wilkinson appointed a faculty committee to survey library needs in January 1953. As a result of the study, the J. Reuben Clark
J. Reuben Clark
Joshua Reuben Clark, Jr. was an American attorney, civil servant, and a prominent leader in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . Born in Grantsville, Utah Territory, Clark was a prominent attorney in the Department of State, and Under Secretary of State for US president Calvin Coolidge...
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.
"Of all the wonderful buildings that we have on [the BYU BYU -Education:* Brigham Young University, a university located in Provo, Utah, USA administered by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.**BYU Salt Lake Center, a satellite center in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA... ] campus, none, I believe, is as important as the library. A library is the very heart and substance of a university." |
| — Gordon B. Hinckley Gordon B. Hinckley Gordon Bitner Hinckley was an American religious leader and author who served as the 15th President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from March 12, 1995 until his death... |
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.
In 1973 the name of the J. Reuben Clark Library was changed to the Harold B. Lee
Harold B. Lee
Harold Bingham Lee was eleventh president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from July 1972 until his death.- Early life :...
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 215000 square feet (19,974.2 m²). This addition was occupied in the summer of 1976 and dedicated March 15, 1977.
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 235000 square feet (21,832.2 m²) were added to the library, most of it underground. When the new addition was dedicated on November 15, 2000, the library was 665000 square feet (61,780.5 m²). Since then, the Library has focused more on digital expansion, adding access to several electronic books and scholarly databases from on- and off-campus. Today, the library is supported by 351 full-time equivalent
Full-time equivalent
Full-time equivalent , is a unit to measure employed persons or students in a way that makes them comparable although they may work or study a different number of hours per week. FTE is often used to measure a worker's involvement in a project, or to track cost reductions in an organization...
employees.
Collections
BYU Family History Library
The BYU Family History Library is located in the Harold B. Lee Library on the campus of Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah...
, the Primrose International Viola Library (named for William Primrose
William Primrose
William Primrose CBE was a Scottish violist and teacher.-Biography:Primrose was born in Glasgow and studied violin initially. In 1919 he moved to study at the then Guildhall School of Music in London. On the urging of the accompanist Ivor Newton, Primrose moved to Belgium to study under Eugène...
), the International Harp Archives, and serves as a designated depository of government documents. In January 2010 the juvenile literature department opened its Lloyd Alexander
Lloyd Alexander
Lloyd Chudley Alexander was a widely influential American author of more than forty books, mostly fantasy novels for children and adolescents, as well as several adult books...
Collection, featuring items from the author's home office for students and researchers to access.
Of particular note is the L. Tom Perry Special Collections Library. Named after LDS Church leader L. Tom Perry
L. Tom Perry
Lowell Tom Perry is a senior member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , having become a member of that body in 1974...
, 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. The collection includes a 1967 Biblia Sacra illustrated by Salvador Dalí
Salvador Dalí
Salvador Domènec Felip Jacint Dalí i Domènech, Marquis de Púbol , commonly known as Salvador Dalí , was a prominent Spanish Catalan surrealist painter born in Figueres,Spain....
, a 1555 Biblia
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
translated by Martin Luther
Martin Luther
Martin Luther was a German priest, professor of theology and iconic figure of the Protestant Reformation. He strongly disputed the claim that freedom from God's punishment for sin could be purchased with money. He confronted indulgence salesman Johann Tetzel with his Ninety-Five Theses in 1517...
, a 13th-century hand-copied Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
Vulgate Bible
Vulgate
The Vulgate is a late 4th-century Latin translation of the Bible. It was largely the work of St. Jerome, who was commissioned by Pope Damasus I in 382 to make a revision of the old Latin translations...
, a Turkish
Turkish language
Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...
New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old 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
Book of Mormon
The Book of Mormon is a sacred text of the Latter Day Saint movement that adherents believe contains writings of ancient prophets who lived on the American continent from approximately 2600 BC to AD 421. It was first published in March 1830 by Joseph Smith, Jr...
. Other artifacts include four 4,000-year-old cuneiform
Cuneiform
Cuneiform can refer to:*Cuneiform script, an ancient writing system originating in Mesopotamia in the 4th millennium BC*Cuneiform , three bones in the human foot*Cuneiform Records, a music record label...
tablets, six Oscars, and ten Ansel Adams
Ansel Adams
Ansel Easton Adams was an American photographer and environmentalist, best known for his black-and-white photographs of the American West, especially in Yosemite National Park....
photographs.
In 1983, after the commercial flop of The Magic of Lassie
The Magic of Lassie
The Magic of Lassie is a 1978 Wrather Corporation film. It features James Stewart in one of only two musical film roles that he played . Mickey Rooney and Alice Faye also make cameo appearances in the film...
, Jimmy Stewart went into semi-retirement and donated his papers, films, and other records to the Harold B. Lee Library
Media attention
In July 2010, the HBLL received nationwide attention for a parodyParody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
on an Old Spice
Old Spice
Old Spice is a prominent American brand of male grooming products. It is manufactured by Procter & Gamble, which acquired the brand in 1990 from the Shulton Company.-History:...
commercial that was filmed inside the library that went viral
Viral marketing
Viral marketing, viral advertising, or marketing buzz are buzzwords referring to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of viruses...
. In April 2011, a cappella
A cappella
A cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato...
group Vocal Point
Vocal Point
Vocal Point is a nine-member, male a cappella group at Brigham Young University. Founded by students in 1991, Vocal Point operates under the auspice of BYU’s School of Music....
recorded the music video for their rendition of "Jump, Jive, an' Wail" in HBLL.
External links
- L. Tom Perry Special Collections home page
- BYU Harold B. Lee Library at FamilySearch Research Wiki for genealogists