Booth Library
Mary J. Booth Library at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, Illinois, serves students, faculty, staff, and the public. The university’s first library opened in 1899 in Old Main with 2,400 square feet and 2,500 volumes. Over the years it expanded, and Mary Josephine Booth, librarian from 1904, championed a dedicated building.
Construction of the current library began in 1948, and the $2.1 million Booth Library opened in 1950. It spread across four floors, covering 37,500 square feet with seating for 500 and space for 150,000 volumes. By 1965 the collection reached 114,000 volumes. An annex added in 1967–1968 increased capacity to 475,000 volumes and seating for 1,300.
A major renovation and expansion from 1999 to 2002 updated the building to about 165,000 square feet and 1.5 million volumes. Architect firm Holabird & Root worked with the university and state agencies to preserve original features while modernizing the library and unifying the main building, the annex, and a new south addition.
Today Booth Library offers a wide range of resources including government documents, the Ballenger Teachers Center with K-12 materials, and a large collection of non-print teaching materials. It also serves leisure readers with general books, periodicals, films, and best sellers. The collections are organized by the Library of Congress system, and the public catalog is part of I-Share, a network of Illinois libraries. Online databases and interlibrary loan are available, and Illinois residents can obtain a library card. Parking is available in a lot at the south end of the building.
The library’s collection includes about 978,000 cataloged volumes and roughly 1.2 million microtexts, plus maps, music scores, and pamphlets. The government documents collection covers U.S. and Illinois publications.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 11:13 (CET).