History
The Grainger Engineering Library Information Center has been called “the model for all future academic technical libraries.” This project was made possible by a man named William Wallace Grainger, a University of Illinois electrical engineering graduate, class of 1919. He made his riches by launching a small mail-order electrical supplies and components business that eventually grew into a Fortune 500 industrial supply company. William Grainger felt a professional commitment to make technology accessible to everyone and it was in that same spirit that his son David donated over 18 million dollars to fund the construction of the Grainger Engineering Library Information Center. In recognition to his contribution, a brass relief of William Wallace Grainger was placed in the first floor lobby of the Grainger Engineering Library.
The Grainger Engineering Library was dedicated on the 59th anniversary of the University of Illinois Foundation, October 14, 1994. The dedication proceedings, entitled a “Gateway to a New Era”, established the largest engineering library in the country, with over 92,000 square feet (8,500 m2) holding more than 300,000 volumes. In keeping with the building’s cutting edge technical advancements, the ribbon cutting ceremony was a purely digital affair. President Stanley Ikenberry, Chancellor Michael Aiken, and David Grainger, representing his father, William Wallace Grainger, pressed assigned areas on a computer touch screen to change a computerized red ribbon into a visual explosion of fireworks. In 1995 Grainger library took home the prize of “Project of the Year” as awarded by the Illinois Engineering Council. It also received the decoration of “Excellence in Masonry Design, Honorable Mention Award” from the Illinois/Indiana Masonry Council in 1996. It is widely accepted as one of the most technologically advanced information management centers in the nation with as many as 1,000 available computer hookups, at nearly every table, carrel, and desk.
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