Timeline adapted from UF Libraries Timeline
Important Dates
1925 – The first section of what is now Smathers Library opened. The new library had a seating capacity of approximately 800 and a stack capacity of 200,000 volumes.
1931 – South Tower added in 1931.
1945 – The P.K. Yonge Library of Florida History was founded. Philip K. Yonge’s son Julian donated his family’s Floridiana collection in 1944 establishing the P. K. Yonge Library of Florida History. An existing collection of Floridiana (organized into a Florida Room in 1933) was integrated into the new Yonge collection in 1945, which was originally housed in the Law College building.
1948 – A separate fund was created to acquire Inter-American and Caribbean materials in order to support the growing academic interest at the university in Latin America. In addition, the library’s exchange program added materials to this collection, as did duplicate material from the Library of Congress, and in 1951 a Latin American Bibliographer was appointed.
1950 – The library added a stacks unit and the North Tower opened. This same year, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings donated her library and papers and the Creative Writing Collection was organized. Upon dedication of the enlarged Main Library on 30 March 1950, the P. K. Yonge Library of Florida History was moved from the Law College to the new building and the Creative Writing Collection was inaugurated with the donation of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings books and papers, including the manuscripts for The Yearling and Cross Creek.
1951 – The University Archives was established as part of the P. K. Yonge Library. University Archives was established by a memo from President J. Hillis Miller. In 1951, a Subcommittee on Branch Libraries (of the Committee on University Libraries) was established to deal with branch library policies and to approve the establishment of new ones. In the same year, UF expanded branch libraries and saw the founding of three key units: the Rare Books Collection, the Archives Department, and the Latin American Collection.
1958 – Named for Sara Y. Belknap, a New York Librarian and avid patron of the arts, the Belknap Collection is an eclectic mixture of mainly non-book, primary research materials. It now exists as part of Popular Culture Collections.
1959 – A Department of Special Collections was created. The department was abolished in 1972 and then revived in 1987.
1967 – The Graduate Research Library opened and the old library was designated the College Library. On 21-22 April 1967, the Graduate Research Library (Library West) was dedicated and the original Main Library (Library East/Smathers Library) became the undergraduate College Library. The names were changed to Library West and Library East in 1970. Undergraduates were given access to the stacks for the first time in 1967.
1973 – The Map Library was officially founded at the request of six academic departments whose faculty believed strongly that maps were imperative for their research needs. In the 1990s, the Map Library became the Map & Imagery Library as its remote-sensing imagery collections grew.
1977 – The Baldwin Library of Historical Children’s Literature opened. This world-renowned collection opened after Ruth Baldwin donated her collection of English and American children’s books.
1981 – The Isser and Rae Price Library of Judaica was dedicated. Considered the foremost Jewish studies research collection in the southeastern United States, the Price Library holds over 120,000 volumes and digital content.
1987 – First established in 1959, the Department of Special Collections combined the Library of Florida History, the University Archives, Rare Books and Manuscripts, and the Baldwin Library. In the same year, An African Studies curator was appointed, making this the newest collecting area and model to incorporate other Area Studies collections ten years later.
1989 – Former US senator and UF alum George Smathers donates $1.9 million to the university for the renovation of Library East. That year, the State matched his gift of 1.9 million for a total renovation fund of 3.8 million. On May 22, 1989, Florida Chapter 89-390 (SB 1087) became law. The act named Library East the George A. Smathers Library.
1997 – The Latin American and Caribbean Collection, the Isser and Rae Price Library of Judaica, and the Asian Studies collection (later disestablished) merged with African Studies to form the Area Studies Collections unit, which became part of the Department of Special and Area Studies Collections.
2000 – The University of Florida Digital Collections (UFDC) were established after a gift from former Florida Governor Farris Bryant to purchase the Libraries’ first scanners.
2004 – The Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC) was established at an Association of Caribbean University Research and Institutional Libraries (ACURIL) planning meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 2004.
2010 – The Smathers Libraries and UF Historic St. Augustine, Inc., began jointly operating the Governor’s House Library in St. Augustine, Florida. The Governor’s House Library collections were primarily created by a defunct state agency, the Historic St. Augustine Preservation Board. Their collections document St. Augustine’s built environment and provide invaluable historical information about the city and its inhabitants through time.
2012 – The Panama Canal Museum Collection is established at the University of Florida Libraries following the closure of the Panama Canal Museum in Seminole, Florida. After 14 years of operation, the museum transferred its collections to UF.
2014 – The Judaica Suite, designed by world-renowned architect and artist Kenneth Treister was officially opened in Smathers Library. The Map & Imagery Library moved to the first floor of Smathers Library. The Latin American & Caribbean Collection and Reading Room moved from the fourth floor of Smathers Library to the third floor into a larger and renovated space.
2017 – The Albert H. Nahmad Panama Canal Gallery opened on the first floor of the Smathers Library to showcase items from the Panama Canal Museum Collection.