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over 125 years of service, the illinois natural history survey library carla g. heister In 1858 the Natural History Society of Illinois was founded. A part of the society's original organization was its library. The library was located at the Illinois State Normal University, Bloomington, from 1858 to 1885. During this time the library became part of the newly created State Laboratory of Natural History (1877). The laboratory was formerly the Museum of the Natural History Society which had been transferred to state control for monetary reasons. Stephen A. Forbes, the director of the laboratory, accepted in 1885 the position of Professor of Zoology and Entomology at Illinois Industrial University (University of Illinois) and moved the laboratory and its library to the Urbana campus with him. Forbes continued as director of the laboratory until 1917, when the laboratory became the Illinois Natural History Survey. He then became the Chief of the Natural History Survey and was in that position until his death in 1930. Under Forbes' leadership the survey library grew and served naturalists throughout the state. In 1893 the state laboratory had an exhibit at the Columbian Exposition that included about 500 volumes from its library. When the University of Illinois and the state laboratory established the biological station, afloating laboratory, near Havana, Illinois, a library of about 120 volumes was supplied. In 1928 the Natural History Survey library was turned over to the University of Illinois Library and became the Natural History Library. With the move of the Natural History Survey into its own building in 1940, the library split its collection between the university and the survey. The newly formed Natural History Survey (NHS) Library became a separate university library unit. At present the NHS Library is both a departmental library of the University of Illinois libraries and an agency library of the Illinois Department of Energy and Natural Resources. The university supplies book funds and library supplies while the survey supplies physical housing, equipment, and the library personnel. The present collection reflects the interests of the research sections of the survey and its strengths include economic entomology, systematics, aquatic biology, wildlife conservation, ecology, and botany, Entomology, as a major interest of early survey researchers, is an especially strong collection area. The survey library collection is available for all state residents to come and use. Although the collection does not usually circulate beyond the research staff of the survey and limitedly to the University of lllinois community, the library does participate in inter-library loan through the University of Illinois. The survey library collection contains almost 36,000 volumes including almost 800 open serial titles (regular and irregular). Worldwide exchanges with over 500 institutions provide many of these tites. The exchange program includes receipt of publications from France, Germany (East and West), Canada, Australia, Poland, USSR, India, Malaysia, Japan, Mexico, Brazil, Great Britain, The Philippines, and China as well as all fifty states. As a service oriented library, the staff will promptly answer, as well as possible, all telephone or mail requests for information. The staff will provide information for out-of-state questions as well as in-state requests. For over one year the staff helped in finding references and verifying citations for a soon-to-be-published, comprehensive bibliography of the bob-white quail. Information on early work of Natural History Survey entomologists has been supplied to researchers in Canada and California. Also the young owner of a pet toad found out about the feeding habits of his pet and was gently informed that the kindest thing he could do would be to return the animal to the wild. Any question concerning access should be directed to: Carla G. Heister, Librarian 194 |
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