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Library History
The current library building was dedicated on April 11, 1972.
To view the brochure that was published at the time of the dedication please click on this link to open the pdf file (1 MB).
The library is named for Rebecca
Kranz Crown, the wife of Colonel Henry Crown, Chicago philanthropist,
and the library's principal benefactor. Rebecca Kranz Crown
was born in Chicago on February 13, 1900. She married on
August 12, 1920 and died on October 31, 1943.
The Old Library - The Phyllis
Skiffington Noonan Reading Room
In the summer of 1922 when St. Clara
College, Sinsinawa, Wisconsin, moved to River Forest, Illinois,
and adopted its new name, Rosary College, the nucleus for
the library came with it.
The first reference books were dispensed form packing cases
on the third floor of Power Hall. The library opened in
October. Essential books were shelved for the first time
in the third floor lobby, then the library moved to what
is now the sisters' community room and a nearby stack room.
The beautiful wing called Mazzuchelli Building was principally
built to house the library. It was designed by Ralph Adams
Cram and executed by his associate, Mr. Charles Kahall.
The entire second floor was intended for the library --
two huge rooms with high arched ceilings. But the separate
building planned for a chapel was never achieved, and one
of the rooms was, and still is, used as the chapel. The
library occupied one large room, with adjacent stack space,
for forty years, from 1931-1971.
Sister Mary Reparata Murray was the first librarian, and
she established the School of Library Science in 1930.
The Rebecca Crown Library - 1972-2002
The Indiana limestone and Graylite glass building is contemporary in style, shaped like a St. Andrew's cross, and linked on the east to Lewis Memorial Hall. The main entrance and lobby are in the glass-walled area between the new structure and Lewis. Diagonal placement of the building gives a feeling of space and avoids direct views across narrow court areas.
Inside, at the building's center, daylight streams down
from a roof skylight upon a circular staircase, spiraling
up through three floors. The open stairwell visually ties
the floors together, relating the different sections of
the library. This central area is fully open on the west,
through two-story high windows, to a view of the wooded
campus beyond a terrace with a small fountain.
The Graduate School of Library Science was one self-contained unit on the ground floor, with the three floors above devoted to the library, used by 800 undergraduate students in the liberal arts coed college as well as 400 graduate students in the library science school.
The graduate school had several convenient entrances, while all library traffic, in and out, passes the charging desk.
Rebecca Crown Library Building Data
- 1972
| Architects |
Perkins & Will Corporation |
| Consultant |
Frazer Poole |
| General Contractor |
Kiendl Construction Company |
| Cost |
$2,718,000 including equipement and furniture |
| Floor Area |
76,656 sq. ft. |
| Cost Per Square Foot |
$35.46 |
| Interior Designers |
Miller Associated Limited |
| Card Catalog |
Jens Risom Design, Inc. |
| Book Stacks |
Estey Corporation |
| Furniture |
Steelcase, Inc. |
| Seating |
Carrels: 242; Tables: 228;
Lounge: 35; Miscellaneous: 63. |
| Books |
Total volume capacity, 260,000 |
Library Renovation 2000-2002
To
see current floor plans for the library please click here.
The first plans for renovating the library, originally opened in 1970, began in 1994. As time passed it became apparent that a more extensive renovation than first envisioned was appropriate. The final design resulted in an eight million dollar project that called for completely redoing the library. The plan was to re-develop the library, restoring it to the center of student life. The goal has been to change the academic landscape of the campus by combining social and intellectual activities in a building combining technology with teaching, creating a model for the small academic library. The new design created a more open environment, with greater accessibility between the library and the campus-at-large. Students are now able to enter and exit freely on each of the library's three floors, providing ready access to classrooms in the adjoining building. This development makes the library a more integral part of Dominican academics, and presents a wonderful opportunity to interact more often with students.
Improving this physical and intellectual space required a new level of technological capability never dreamed of thirty years ago. Installing an adequate technology infrastructure put the university in a strong position to improve classrooms. All colleges and universities face the problems of aging classrooms. It is a struggle to provide teaching and learning technology to our buildings, some of which are 80 years old. Now, with the library renovation, we had the golden opportunity to add the technological infrastructure necessary to support high-end equipment - now and in the future. To this end, the renovated library houses a series of high-tech classrooms. They include:
- Five enhanced classrooms on the third floor,
networked for resident teacher PCs. Each classroom
also contains a mounted projector, VCR and DVD
player, document camera, and sound system. One
classroom houses a total of 25 PCs for student
use. One large tiered classroom seats 45 students,
with all desks wired for PCs. Two of these classrooms
have satellite capability.
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- Some years ago the university installed three
similarly equipped rooms in Lewis Hall. Library
media services delivers equipment to other classrooms,
all of which are networked. Virtually all classrooms
are equipped with resident VCRs. In 2005, the
library purchased three "enhanced classrooms
on a cart," including networked PCs, projectors,
VCR/DVDs and document cameras. Three additional
such units were added at the start of the 2006
fiscal year.
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- On the second floor, a multimedia production
classroom room houses 18 PCs, a Macintosh lab,
all the equipment of the enhanced classrooms
as well as scanners, printers, and video and
digital cameras. Students have the ability to
burn their own CD's.
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- A training room on the first floor is available
for information literacy instruction. This training
room has a satellite receiver, the enhanced classrooom
equipment and 24 PCs for student use.
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- Two meeting rooms on the lower level are equipped
with the enhanced classroom set-ups, and are
satellite capable.
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The addition of the cyber café on
the lower level has served to enliven the library. Anticipated
problems with food and drink have not materialized. Undergraduates,
faculty and staff are attracted to this café; students
then proceed to the nearby PCs with their coffee. Faculty
often stop for a word with the librarian at the reference
desk, now located in the lower level very near the cyber
café. Noise is occasionally a problem, but the university
has succeeded in transforming the library into a social
as well as intellectual hub and quiet study areas have
been established in the Noonan Reading Room and group study
rooms on the second floor. A major improvement, possible
because of the expanded infrastructure, is the increase
in student work stations. The library now houses sixty
desktop PCs, network connections on all floors for students'
own laptops, and wireless capability on all floors of the
library. The renovation has proven so successful, that
the library expanded its hours to accommodate student needs.
Rebecca Crown Library Building Data - 2002-2006
| Architects |
Frye, Gillin, Molinaro |
| Consultant |
Civil: Graff, Anhalt, Schloemer; Mechanical: Calor Design Group, Ltd.; Electrical: Radiant Design, LLC |
| General Contractor |
Bulley & Andrews, LLC |
| Cost |
$8,000,000 (approx.) |
| Floor Area |
76,656 sq. ft. |
| Cost Per Square Foot |
$104.00 (approx.) |
| Interior Designers |
Frye, Gillan, Molinaro |
| Book Stacks |
Bradford (Moveable) |
| Furniture |
Manager: Agati; Primary Workspace Installer: Kimball |
| Seating |
Carrels: 16; Tables: 92;
Lounge: 50; Computers: 51; Microfiche: 2; Study Rooms:
(4 rooms) seats 26; Patio: 8; Computer Lab: seats
24. |
| Books |
over 300,000 |
| Periodicals |
Print: 1183; Electronic:
16,309 |
| Periodical Databases |
130 |
Last update:
Friday, December 8, 2006
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