Report by Scott Bennett, University Librarian

The university exists to advance knowledge, to transmit it to others, and to preserve the record of what we know and have experienced. Yale has created a great library over the last three-hundred years so that it might excel in these fundamental activities of higher education.

This is my first opportunity, as University Librarian, to report to the Yale faculty and to others on how the library is meeting its obligation to enhance the university's capacity to advance, transmit, and preserve knowledge. Of necessity, many activities of the library's nearly 500 staff and dozens of programs cannot be included here. My purpose is only to highlight some landmark events of the past year and to sketch the broad lines both of continuity and of change for a complex $44.8 million library enterprise.

--Scott Bennett, University Librarian

Much long-sustained planning came to fruition in 1994-1995, and some key initiatives were launched:

• Detailed planning for the $35 million renovation of the Sterling book stacks was completed and contractor bids were sought.
• Preliminary planning for a new $11 million Music Library was successfully completed.
• The library committed itself to a multi-year, multi-million dollar conversion of its card catalog records to machine-readable form and invested heavily in PC workstations for both staff and readers.
• A new Arts Library was a central feature of the work of the Provost's Arts Area Planning Committee.
• The library created an electronic classroom in the Cross Campus Library.
• Eli Express, a campus-wide delivery service for library material, was launched.

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Last Revision: January 9, 2003