John Crerar Library

The John Crerar Library ( KRAY-rar; JCL) is the academic library for science, technology, and medicine at the University of Chicago. It is part of the University of Chicago Library. The original John Crerar Library was founded in downtown Chicago in 1894 and opened to the public on April 1, 1897. It was named after John Crerar, who donated the funds and made his fortune in the railroad supply business. In 1981, facing continuing financial pressures, the Board of Directors of the John Crerar Library gave all of its collection to the University of Chicago to merge with the university's science collection, resulting in a new building that opened in 1984 on the University of Chicago campus and was named "The John Crerar Library" under the bilateral agreement. Since then, the library has become part of the University of Chicago Library system. The library building's renovation was completed in fall 2018 to also accommodate the Department of Computer Science and the Center for Data and Applied Computing. Throughout its history, the library's technology resources have made it popular with Chicago-area business and industry. Though privately owned and operated, the library continues to provide free access to the public for the purpose of conducting research in science, medicine and technology.