Repository: UIHistories Project: Dedication - Grainger Engineering Library [PAGE 18]

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• The W. W. Grainger Professorship in Electrical Engineering, the first endowed professorship in the college. • 'Hie Grainger Power Engineering Software Laboratory, focal point of one of the ten best power engineering programs in the nation. • The Grainger Lecture Series. • Grainger Fellowships in Power Engineering Research. • The Grainger Electrical Machinery Laboratory. • The Advanced Power Applications Laboratory, the only one of its kind in the United States. But this long and magnificent tradition of giving—to create access—has indeed found its fullest expression in this library. And through it, W. W. Grainger, who began with his eight-page catalog of electrical supplies, now achieves a place of honor in the information age. Today the largest engineering library in the nation carries his name and continues his vision.

Epilogue: The Tradition Lives On

Flexibility and access will govern the evolution of the Grainger Center as collections grow, new technologies are introduced, the scope of knowledge expands, and the focus of education shifts. But the more things change, the more they remain the same. And the Grainger Engineering Library Information Center has opened a window to the past that has long been close to the hearts of Illini. That window looks out upon an Engineering Quadrangle whose heritage dates to the time that W. W. Grainger was on campus. The quadrangle was originally envisioned as a unifying element to a campus that was growing vigorously—if somewhat haphazardly. Spanning the disance between Engineering Hall (1894) and the old Mechanical and Drill Hall (1872), the quadrangle was to serve as a central commons, sin area of peace and tranquility amid the bustle of the fast-growing campus. Today the Grainger Engineering Library Information Center occupies the site of the old Mechanical and Drill Hall, the University's first permanent engineering building. Once again the North Campus has a strong, working central focus; and once again an Engineering Quadrangle is envisioned. Just as the traditional and the contemporary are joined together in the architecture of the Grainger, so too will the Engineering Quadrangle join the old and the new, bringing together the historical landmarks in which the greatness of the University of Illinois College of Engineering was built, and those that have succeeded it, serving as the stage for the college's rise to national and international renown. The past is indeed prelude to the future.