 | This articlecontains paid contributions. It may requirecleanup to comply with Wikipedia'scontent policies, particularlyneutral point of view. Please discuss further on thetalk page.(September 2024) |
| Harold B. Lee Library | |
|---|---|
 Library main entrance at night | |
 | |
| 40°14′57″N111°38′57″W / 40.24917°N 111.64917°W /40.24917; -111.64917 | |
| Location | Provo, Utah, United States |
| Type | Academic library |
| Established | 1925 (1925) |
| Access and use | |
| Population served | Brigham Young University |
| Other information | |
| Director | Rick Anderson[1] |
| Employees | 160 (2025)[2] |
| Website | lib |
TheHarold B. Lee Library (HBLL) is the mainacademic library ofBrigham Young University (BYU) located inProvo, Utah. The library traces its roots to the late 19th century and has been renamed, relocated, and expanded various times to accommodate the growth of its collection. It was renamed in 1973 afterHarold B. Lee, the11thpresident ofthe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church).
The HBLL traces its roots to the late 19th century.Karl G. Maeser, who served as principal ofBrigham Young Academy (the precursor to BYU) from 1876 to 1892,[3][4] had a collection of books in his office that served as the first semblance of a library at the school. In 1891, the collection moved out of the principal's office and into a room in the Education Building on the lower part of campus.[5]
In 1925, the collection became a proper library with its own dedicated building when the Heber J. Grant Library (known later as theHeber J. Grant Building) was completed.[5] By the 1950s, the collection along with the needs of the university's students had grown substantially, and planning began for a new facility.[6]
In 1961, the library collection moved into a newly built facility and renamed the J. Reuben Clark Library, afterJ. Reuben Clark, a prominent LDS Church leader who also served as the 7thUnited States Under Secretary of State.[7][8][9] The library's collection reached 500,000 volumes in 1965,[10] and it began offering adial-up access system in 1969 for patrons to access music, lectures, and foreign language recordings.[9]
In 1973, BYU opened alaw school, also naming it after Clark. To avoid confusion with the school on campus, the library changed its name to the HBLL in honor of Harold B. Lee, the 11th LDS Church president.[11] A six-story addition was completed in 1976, doubling the library's physical space and increasing the library's seating capacity from 2,500 to 4,500.[12][13] The addition had moveable walls, integrated student study spaces into the stacks, added group study rooms, and included a vault for archival materials.[13] Art professor and artistFranz M. Johansen created four cast stone panels used to decorate the south entrance of the library and representing four areas of human knowledge.[14]
In 1999, theL. Tom Perry Special Collections wing of the library was added, with contents at the time valued at $153 million.[15][16] In 2014, the library was named one of the "25 Most Used Digital Libraries in the Country".[17] HBLL became a member of theAssociation of Research Libraries,[18][19] and during theCOVID-19 pandemic in 2020, BYU shut down part of the library because students weren’t in compliance with the school's mask policies.[20]
The HBLL is located at the center of BYU's main campus. It has 6 floors,[21] with 98 miles of shelving, more than 6 million items and a seating capacity of 4,600 people.[22][unreliable source?] It serves over 10,000 patrons each day,[22][unreliable source?] and it features a writing center, a cafe, a media center, a family friendly study room, individual and group study rooms, afamily history library, and various collections including a special vault area for theL. Tom Perry Special Collections Library.[23] The library is a CONSER (Cooperative Serials) program liaison for theU.S. Library of Congress, serving as an "authoritative source for bibliographic records, documentation, and training materials for serials cataloging".[24]
The HBLL includes afamily history library, thePrimrose International Viola Archive,[25][26] and the International Harp Archives.[27][28] It also has a special vault area for theL. Tom Perry Special Collections Library,[23] which contains various religious texts including a 17th centuryOld NorseBible,[29] and a variety of film-related items includingOscar statuettes and aCecil B. DeMille collection.[30][31]
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
| |||||||||||
| Academics |  | ||||||||||
| Athletics |
| ||||||||||
| Campus (buildings) |
| ||||||||||
| History | |||||||||||
| People | |||||||||||
| Student life | |||||||||||
| Organizations | |||||||||||
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
