A last look at the Undergraduate Library

Now that the semester has ended, the Undergraduate Library will be closed for good. Over the course of the next few years, the building will be transformed from its current state to a home for the University Library’s rare and archival collections, which are currently housed in multiple buildings throughout campus. This includes the University Archives, the Rare Book and Manuscript Library, the Illinois History and Lincoln Collections, and the Map Library.

Many of the services in the current UGL will be moved to the Main Library — including the Media Commons and large scale instructional activities — which will be getting its own makeover as part of this plan. You can read more about the plans at the l ibrary project website.

It’s the end of an era. If you came to the University of Illinois as an undergrad, you likely learned about the UGL and its unique design on your first tour, or perhaps orientation. Its history is featured prominently in The Other Guys famous ditty about The Morrow Plots. There will still be an underground library, it’s just going to look quite a bit different.

Here is one last look at the space as we know it. You can see renderings of the planned design here.