The Illinois State Library is the official State Library of Illinois located in

Springfield, Illinois Springfield is the capital of the U.S. state of Illinois and the county seat and largest city of Sangamon County. The city's population was 114,394 at the 2020 census, which makes it the state's seventh most-populous city, the second largest o ...

. The library has a collection of 5 million items and serves as regional federal documents depository for the state. The library oversees the Talking Book and Braille Service which offers audio and braille library service to Illinois residents with print disabilities or other disabilities. The library maintains the Illinois Center for the Book, the Illinois Digital Archives and the Illinois Veterans History Project.

Building

The original state library was located next to the office of

Stephen A. Douglas Stephen Arnold Douglas (April 23, 1813 – June 3, 1861) was an American politician and lawyer from Illinois. A senator, he was one of two nominees of the badly split Democratic Party for president in the 1860 presidential election, which wa ...

while he was Secretary of State. It moved into the west wing of the State Capitol's third floor in October 1887. The Illinois State Library is currently housed in the purpose-built library rededicated as the

Gwendolyn Brooks Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks (June 7, 1917 – December 3, 2000) was an American poet, author, and teacher. Her work often dealt with the personal celebrations and struggles of ordinary people in her community. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetr ...

State Library in 2003.Gwendolyn Brooks Illinois State Library building
/ref> The library which was designed by Chicago architectural firm Graham, Anderson, Probst and White. Construction took five years to complete and cost just under 36 million dollars when it was complete in 1990.

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* {{Authority control 1839 establishments in Illinois Buildings and structures in Springfield, Illinois Education in Springfield, Illinois Government agencies established in 1839 Public libraries in Illinois State agencies of Illinois State libraries of the United States Libraries established in 1839