The John Crear Library and Plans for Its New Building

Abstract

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 architecture. 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 objectives and policies, which began in 1948. The 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 represented by the Crerar collections. The 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: science and technology. A history of the library's acquisitions policy and the detailed 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. The principal