The Peter J. Shields Library, or Shields Library, is a four-story

library A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...

named after Peter J. Shields. It is located in the eastern part of main campus of

UC Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The institut ...

in unincorporated

Yolo County Yolo County (; Wintun: ''Yo-loy''), officially the County of Yolo, is a county located in the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 216,403. Its county seat is Woodland. Yolo County is incl ...

, adjacent to Davis. The library is an essential study and resource location for many UC Davis alumni. UC Davis Shields Library

History

The rectangular building the large library occupies was built in three parts starting in the year 1940, when the oldest north wing was built. The main entrance used to face north towards the UC Davis Quad Area. When UC Davis shut down during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, the main reading room was used to train the Army Signal Corps. Expansion of the library (stage two) began about 15 years later in the 1960, which added the south and east sides of the building. The front entrance also changed its orientation from facing north to facing east. The last expansion stage in the early 1990s added the western side of the library and once again moved the main entrance to the west. This orientation remains the same as of now.

The interior

The library contains 3.2 million volumes, making it the largest library in

and the third largest in the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Franci ...

system. In addition to books, the Shields Library contains many study tables, computers, and pieces of art work scattered across the interior of the library. Shields Library includes four individual departments: Biological Agricultural Science, Humanities, Social Sciences & Government Information Services, Special Collections, and Library Instruction.

References

External links

University of California, Davis: Shields Library website
* Shields Library - ''on the Davis Wiki'' {{authority control University of California, Davis campus Libraries in California University and college academic libraries in the United States