In 1980 a 10,000-square-foot temporary facility costing $360,000 was developed by the UT Physical Plant Department and Page and Associates at the western intersection of Volunteer Boulevard and Andy Holt Avenue. It was designed to provide storage space for little-used library holdings and provide space for the campus mail service (located on the P1 floor … Continued

In 1901 President Dabney launched a campaign to obtain funds from Andrew Carnegie for a library. Dabney envisioned an elaborate library system with traveling collections to serve the state. In 1905 Carnegie promised $40,000 for a library building, with the stipulation that this sum should be matched with a like amount to maintain it, by … Continued

The music library had its beginning as a small collection of sound recordings brought together for teaching and study within the Department of Fine Arts. When the new Music Building opened in 1965, composers’ complete works, historical sets of scores, other printed music, and reference books were transferred from the James D. Hoskins Library to … Continued

The James D. Hoskins Library and Kefauver Wing is comprised of the original (east) portion that opened in March 1931; a tower addition begun in 1932 and completed in 1934 to house the Eleanor Deane Swan Audigier collection of art objects and furniture; an addition begun in 1957 and completed in 1959; and the 1966 … Continued

Although much of the ceiling decoration has been covered by false ceilings associated with air conditioning the facility, the original Gothic characteristics lie underneath. The ceiling of the main entry on the first floor is intricately painted with vines and oak leaves. The stair and the hall leading to the former card catalog area have … Continued

A fire, apparently started by an electrical short, caused an estimated $50,000 damage to the second-floor bibliography alcove and cataloging department in the early morning hours of Saturday, January 6, 1979.

Fifty-nine thousand pounds of the late Senator Estes Kefauver’s papers and mementos arrived in Knoxville in 1963 to be sorted, processed, and preserved in the Special Collections department of the UT Libraries. The gift was made by Kefauver’s widow, Nancy, through the Kefauver Memorial Foundation, and included papers; photographs; the mounted head of a 10-point … Continued

In spring 1963 a massive $20,000 Xerox copier was placed in Hoskins Library for use by students. Students were able to make photocopies at a cost of 10 cents per page.

A section of the suspended ceiling in the Reference Room installed in 1947 fell overnight on January 19, 1983, exposing the decoration that it had covered. Inspection of the collapsed ceiling revealed a weak spot that evidently caused the collapse; no signs of faulty construction of the ceiling were evident. The cost to repair the … Continued

The windows in the Reference Room section of the original (1930) wing of the James D. Hoskins were decorated with etchings of printers’ marks. The seals of the State of Tennessee and the University of Tennessee were the printers’ marks of their publications and were directly over the reference desk. The first window south of … Continued