The George A. Smathers Libraries of the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preem ...

constitute one of the largest university library systems in the United States. The system includes eight of the nine libraries of the University of Florida and provides primary support to all academic programs except those served by the

Lawton Chiles Legal Information Center The Lawton Chiles Legal Information Center at the Levin College of Law is part of the library system at the University of Florida. The Lawton Chiles Legal Information Center contains legal research materials supporting the study of state, feder ...

. Previously the Health Science Center Library was also separate, but it was integrated into the Smathers Libraries on July 1, 2009. The current dean is Judith C. Russell. All of the libraries serve all of the university's faculty and students, but each has a special mission to be the primary support of the specific colleges and degree programs with which they are primarily affiliated. As is common in research libraries, library materials are housed in a variety of locations depending upon discipline. The three largest libraries cover an extensive range of disciplines while the smaller libraries focus on three or fewer disciplines.

George A. Smathers Libraries and collections

File:UF-LibraryWest.JPG,

Library West Library West is the major library of the University of Florida, University of Florida's George A. Smathers Libraries system. Its collections consist of material on the humanities and social sciences, as well as African studies and Asian studies re ...

File:Marston Library.jpg, Marston Science Library File:Gville UF Library East06.jpg, Smathers Library File:UFHistoricBuildingSmathersLibraryEastInteriorSpecialCollectionsRoom.JPG, Special Collections Room at Smathers Library

Other UF library collections

Collection strengths

Together the Libraries hold 6 million+ print volumes, 1.5 million digital books, 1,000+ databases, approximately 150,000 print/digital journals, 14 million digital pages. The Libraries also administer the Florida Academic Repository (FLARE), a centralized shared print storage facility that houses millions of books from the

State University System of Florida The State University System of Florida (SUSF or SUS) is a system of twelve public universities in the U.S. state of Florida. As of 2018, over 341,000 students were enrolled in Florida's state universities. Together with the Florida College Sy ...

and the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private university, private research university in Coral Gables, Florida, United States. , the university enrolled 19,852 students in two colleges and ten schools across over ...

. The libraries have built a number of nationally significant research collections primarily in support of graduate research programs. Among them are collections discussed above, i.e., the Latin American Collection, the Isser and Rae Price Library of Judaica, and the Map and Imagery Library. Others include the

Baldwin Library of Historical Children's Literature The Baldwin Library of Historical Children's Literature in the Department of Special and Area Studies Collections at the University of Florida's George A. Smathers Libraries contains more than 130,000 books and serials published in Great Britain ...

which is among the world's greatest collections of literature for children (Smathers Library, Special Collections); and the P.K. Yonge Library of Florida History, which is the state's preeminent Floridiana collection, holding the largest collection of

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

colonial documents concerning southeastern

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

as well as rich archives of prominent Florida politicians, (Smathers Library, Special Collections). The Libraries also have particularly strong holdings in architectural preservation and 18th century American architecture (AFA), late 19th and early 20th century German state documents from 1850 to 1940, Latin American art and architecture, (AFA and Smathers Library),

national bibliographies A national bibliography is a systematic bibliography of acquisitions of a national library. Most countries either have a national bibliography or are in the process of compiling one. Some countries that do not have a national bibliography of their ...

(Smathers Library, Reference), U.S. Census information, especially in electronic format (Marston Science Library, Documents), the rural sociology of Florida and

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the equator, where the sun may shine directly overhead. This contrasts with the temperate or polar regions of Earth, where the Sun can never be directly overhead. This is because of Earth's ax ...

and

subtropical The subtropical zones or subtropics are geographical zone, geographical and Köppen climate classification, climate zones immediately to the Northern Hemisphere, north and Southern Hemisphere, south of the tropics. Geographically part of the Ge ...

agriculture collections (Marston Science Library), English and

American Literature American literature is literature written or produced in the United States of America and in the British colonies that preceded it. The American literary tradition is part of the broader tradition of English-language literature, but also ...

, and U.S. Documents (Marston Science Library, Documents).

Benefactor

The library system was named in honor of

George A. Smathers George Armistead Smathers (November 14, 1913 – January 20, 2007) was an American lawyer and politician from the state of Florida who served in both chambers of the United States Congress, the United States House of Representatives from 1947 t ...

, a former Florida

senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or Legislative chamber, chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the Ancient Rome, ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior ...

. Smathers attended the University of Florida's school of law and served as student body president. He donated approximately $20 million to the University of Florida's library system in 1991, which was at the time the largest donation to a public university in the state of Florida.

Brief History

The first librarian who managed the university library and its collections is recognized as C.A. Finley. In 1909 the Law Library, the Botanical Library, the Zoological Library, and the Physics Library were established. In 1910 the University of Florida's Agricultural Library, which had previously shared its space with the Main Library in Thomas Hall, was moved to Agriculture Hall. The University of Florida's Main Library was built in 1925 to house a growing collection of forty thousand books, numerous journals, and various documents. The fledgling library, which was constructed in the collegiate Gothic architectural style, consisted of a reference room, a reserve reading room, and offices. In 1938, for the first time, the UF Library allowed books to circulate outside the library. In 1941 the libraries automated their book circulation and fines using an IBM punch card and sorting machines. The annual meeting of the Florida Library Association was held in Gainesville in 1950. It was hosted by the Director of the UF Libraries, Stanley West. The assembly also included the inauguration of a new addition to the main library building and a donation by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings of many of her papers and manuscripts for the creation of a Creative Writing Collection. In 1963 the libraries hit another milestone with the acquisition of their one-millionth volume. In 1967 The University of Florida's Graduate Research Library opened (which in 1970 was to be renamed Library West), and the Main Library became the Undergraduate Library (which in 1970 was to be renamed Library East). This resulted in students and patrons alike being able, for the first time, to browse open stacks. The same year the Veterans Affairs Medical Center Library also opened. During the 1970s the UF Libraries underwent noteworthy developments in automation. This was mainly done by installing terminals with access to the bibliographic utility OCLC and other online databases, along with the acquisition of its first computer programmer, and the creations of a Systems department. The UF Libraries acquired the NOTIS software in 1980. They did so to run a PC-based, automated online card catalog and circulation system. In 1987 a new Science Library (later renamed the Marston Science Library) is opened at the University of Florida. The library was created from the merger of several science branches, including the Hume Agriculture Library.Reakes, Patrick. 2016. Alachua County Library History: Library History Timeline. UF George A. Smathers Libraries. https://guides.uflib.ufl.edu/c.php?g=147371&p=966877

External links

George A. Smathers Libraries

Link to all of UF's libraries

University of Florida Digital Collections (UFDC)
including
statistics page
that is updated as materials are loaded
UF Libraries History Timeline

Smathers Libraries Campus Conversations

Special and Area Studies Collections Blog

References

{{authority control Smathers Libraries Smathers Libraries Smathers Libraries