Pre-Buck Spaces
Even though the first university library in the world was established at the University of Paris in the mid-thirteenth century, academic libraries in the US appeared in the Colonial Era, not long before IWU was established. Between 1851-52, IWU’s library was first mentioned in the school catalog, boasting 1000 volumes. IWU’s library resembled colonial libraries around the US which were usually housed in a single room in a multifunctional building due to smaller collections (Matthews). Old North, IWU’s main building until 1870, housed the entire library on its second floor. Even though it moved around a bit, it was brought back to the third floor of Old North in 1891, where it remained until the Science hall was opened in 1912, when it was brought back to the second floor again.
As higher education in the US shifted from classical traditions to practical knowledge, the research function of higher education began to receive more emphasis. The importance of libraries became clear in that function as library science became an established discipline and librarianship saw professionalization in the US (Matthews). At IWU, the first librarian was appointed in 1886 and in 1889, the Wilder Reading room was also established in the basement of Hedding Hall. However, libraries were still just repositories of books and had little function beyond that. At the turn of the 20th century, there was another shift in the role of libraries from conserving and protecting library materials to effectively facilitating their use by faculty and students. After 1900, libraries gained more importance for the spaces they provided - fulfilling the need of students to participate in self-education through independent studies.
Libraries became recognized for the spaces they represented, and there was a trend to erect architectural marvels that stood out on campus as status symbols. For IWU, that came in 1923 - Buck.