The very first library
A university with not many books
When Uppsala University was founded in 1477 there were no plans for a university library which is a much later phenomenon both as an idea and a reality. Professors and students alike most probably had access to the Cathedral's books. There were one or two private books around, but they were far from common. Knowledge was acquired by the professors lecturing and the students listening and taking notes.
King Gustav II Adolf founded the University Library
Large sections of the older collections at the University Libary are donations. Other large sections consist of war booty, purchased items and legal deposits. More recently the most common forms of acquisition have been purchase, legal deposits and the exchange of publications, but the importance of donations is even today not insignificant.
The University Library was founded in 1620 by King Gustav II Adolf. That year it also received its first donation. The King presented the university with the book collection that had been housed on Gråmunkeholmen (the island of the Franciscan or Grey Monks) in Stockholm. It included the remains of the medieval monastic libraries and some confiscated private libraries, for example King Sigismund's and that of Hogenskild Bielke, a privy counsellor who was executed in 1605. This formed the foundation stone of Uppsala University Library, which was also granted 200 daler annually, an amount which was raised to 300 daler in 1621.
One of the professors was allotted the task of librarian and a building was eventually found to house the collections. It was near to the Cathedral but no longer exists, other than as parts of another building.
War booty
During the 1620s the King increased his donations with much war booty that had amassed during his wars on the continent. This is for example how the Jesuit libraries in Riga, Braunsberg (Braniewo) and Frauenburg (Frombork) landed in Swedish hands.
During the Thirty Years' War the looting of libraries was a way of filling libraries at home. The picture depicts the looting of the Jagiellonian Library in Kraków in 1655. Part of a painting by Michał Stachowicz (1768-1825) from the early 19th century.
In the 1630s the Swedes campaigned in southern Germany and the book collections they acquired in Würzburg, Mainz and other places were in part sent to Uppsala.
Queen Christina favoured Stockholm rather than Uppsala with books, as well as her courtiers such as Magnus Gabriel De la Gardie. Large parts of his library eventually landed up in Uppsala in various ways.
The library at Gustavianum
Legal deposits
The Library's collections grew slowly. By the year 1700, when the Library had for several decades been housed in Gustavianum, the collections are believed to have reached 30,000 volumes. From this point onwards, donations ceased to be the major form of acquisition. In 1692 and 1707 laws were promulgated to enforce printing houses in Sweden to deliver one copy of every publication to libraries, at first only to the Royal Library (now the National Library of Sweden), but later also to Uppsala University Library and other libraries. These legal deposits made no great impact initially, but gradually and with the help of subsequent laws in a similar vein, they became the Library's single most important growth factor.
Gustavianum in Uppsala, which nowadays houses the University's museum. Photo: Lars Munkhammar
Benzelius
Eric Benzelius the younger, was the University Librarian between 1702-1723. His term of office was one of the greatest in the history of the Library, not least as far as acquisitions were concerned. The growth during his time consisted to a large extent of manuscripts. One of the most important donors was the linguist and diplomat Johan Gabriel Sparfwenfeld, who at different times presented the Library with valuable books, manuscripts and maps.
In 1767 Crown Prince Gustaf (later Gustav III) donated Privy Counsellor Jacob Cronstedt's library to the university. Cronstedt's book collection had been acquired by the parliament expressly for the Crown Prince.
Aurivillius
Pehr Fabian Aurivillius’ term of office, like that of Benzelius’, was an important period in the development of the Library. Aurivillius was the University Librarian for 42 years, between 1787-1829. His accomplishments were on many fronts and not least the extensive catalogue of the Library's holdings that is still in use. During Aurivillius’ time the collections became considerably larger. For example the Library acquired approximately 4,000 volumes from Johan Henric Lidén's collection, mainly academic theses. In 1788 Gustav III decided to gift his private archives to Uppsala University Library, with the proviso that they should be made accessible first 50 years after his death – in the long term a highly significant source for research.
In the 19th century Carolina Rediviva
The new palace of books
In 1841 the University Library moved into the newly built Carolina Rediviva, which in some ways also functioned as the university's main building. The great "Carolina Hall" became the university's ceremonial hall which was approached by a magnificent staircase.
In the 19th century you entered the Great Hall from this staircase. Source: Ny illustrerad tidning, 1877.
Carolina Rediviva means "the revived Carolina Academy" and refers to an older university building, Academia Carolina, which was demolished in the 18th century. The name can also be seen as a minor tribute to King Karl XIV Johan (Carolus Johannes), who determined the site of the new building when he was the Crown Prince.
Great donations
By this time the Library's holdings had increased to over 100,000 volumes. Under Johan Henrik Schröder, the Librarian between 1830–57, the Library received a number of important donations. Possibly the most well-known is the Carl Gustaf von Brinkman library with around 22,000 volumes.
At the time of Uppsala University's 400 year centenary in 1877, the alderman, tanner and book collector Jacob Westin in Stockholm made the largest donation to date in terms of numbers of books, when he donated his library consisting of approximately 20,000 books and a great number of pictures and manuscripts.
Annerstedt
Claes Annerstedt's time as the Library Director (1883–1904) was a period of great expansion for the University Library. The new main university building, the University Hall, had been completed leaving Carolina free to be used entirely as a library. Extensive renovations ensured new storage space and a more modern working environment with lifts, central heating and so on. A thorough inventory of the Library's holdings was made in 1886, revealing that the number of volumes had reached 230,000.
In 1895 Annerstedt managed through intensive and partially hidden lobbying to effect, after a long and stormy debate in the parliament, a doubling of the grant to the Library. New international agreements on the exchange of publications were established increasing the holdings further. This was an activity which was to flourish for over a hundred years. Swedish printers delivered one copy of all their publications with a regularity as never before. By the end of his term of office, Annerstedt calculated the the University Library held 341,911 volumes or 13,741 metres of shelves of books and other items, an enormous increase. However the twentieth century publishing explosion would generate increases of a different calibre: just one century later the length of shelved items had increased tenfold.
Carolina Rediviva - the facade facing Drottninggatan has been part of the city's profile since 1841. Photo: Lars Munkhammar
The 20th century and into the new millenium
The golden age
During the earlier part of the twentieth century, the Library expanded further with several donations amongst others the Wahlund Library, "Bibliothèque Wahlund", in 1913, which consists mainly of Philology of the Romance languages, but the truly great golden age came in the 1950s. A series of important book collectors donated their collections to the Library: Erik Waller, Richard Du Rietz, Thore Virgin, Gustaf Brun, Erik Kempe, Gustaf Bernström, Vilas Johnson and several more.
Even after the 1950s magnificent gifts have been made to Carolina and a couple of these are particularly worthy of mention. One is Nils Bonnier's generous donation of artistically bound books many of which have enriched the Library's excellent collection of book bindings. The other is a donation from Katarina Crafoord who was largely responsible for the University Library being able to acquire the manor house library at Leufsta, a unique 18th century collection assembled by the industrialist, zoologist and baron Charles De Geer.
Lack of space
The brilliant development of the University Library during nearly the entire 20th century however had its dark side - lack of space. The Carolina building could by no means house everything, and a system of external book repositories was established. The enactment of the new Law of Legal Deposits in 1980 brought with it changes which eased planning somewhat. University libraries in Sweden would continue to receive all Swedish publications, but would no longer (with the exception of Lund University Library) be required to save items they considered unnecessary.
Decentralisation
For many years Carolina Rediviva, or just Carolina, was synonymous with Uppsala University Library. The building housed the Library quite simply. The University's various departments were in central Uppsala and the Library presided above the town. During the second half of the 20th century this image fractured slightly. New campuses were built, not all of which were in the town. Some of the library services, book and journal collections were relocated here and there in the buildings where the day to day life of the university was taking place. New organisms such as departmental libraries, seminar libraries, faculty libraries, started to appear with no consistent, organisational framework.
The tree of knowledge had become a copse and there was a big risk of the undergrowth taking over, so clearing actions were taken. During the 1970s and 1980s, a system with a central library in Carolina and various branch libraries had evolved. The organisation today is quite different but the system with subject libraries is still in place. There are 13 at present. The Carolina building is home to one of the libraries for humanities and theology, but it also contains the University Library's cultural heritage collections: manuscripts, maps, pictures, early prints etc
New times, new media
Nowadays information is no longer just ink on paper. Enormous parts of the Uppsala University Library's collections are digital. Content development can no longer be described in terms of metres of shelved material. Even though the paper-based collections are still with us and continue to increase, the digital collections are growing exponentially. As far as the cultural heritage material is concerned this affords exceptional opportunities for both improved accessibility and better protection for the original materials. As for the provision of information in general, the electronic development is a revolution bringing great benefits in the form of availability, space-saving and distribution, even if the days of simultaneous and parallel publication, in print and electronically, of books and journals appear to be numbered.
