Background on the Chemistry Library
This photograph from 1891 shows Chemistry students studying in the Balance Room of what is now Harker Hall, when Harker was the home of the Chemistry Department.
The chemists created the first departmental library at the University of Illinois when they began borrowing frequently used books from the main library across campus and storing them in the Balance Room.
The Chemistry Library now serves the departments of chemistry, chemical engineering, and biochemistry. Its collections, containing more than 70,000 volumes and more than 800 serial titles, are considered among the best in the country. The main emphasis is on current scholarly and research materials, primarily serials, large bibliographic sets, and reference tools. The serial holdings are particularly noteworthy in that they include long runs of journals in every field of chemistry, including many German titles dating back to the 1800s.
