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History of the University of Guelph Library

The McLaughlin Library opened on October 25, 1968. It was built at a cost of $8,175,000, including a 1 million dollar contribution from Colonel "Sam" McLaughlin, an Oshawa philanthropist.

The project architect was L.S. Langmead of Hancock, Little, Calvert Associates. The floor area of the Library in 1968 was 270,000 square feet. Furnishings were by Eaton's of Canada Ltd.

The new building was designed to house 300,000 volumes; it currently houses over 2 million equivalent volumes. In addition to the collection in the McLaughlin Building, about 104,000 volumes are in the off-campus storage facility and 30,000 volumes are in the nearby Veterinary Science Library.

In 1990 major renovations were completed at the cost of $650,000. The Archival, Rare and Special Collections Area was enlarged which added 5000 square feet to the total Library floor area, with space for 40,000 more volumes. At the same time the Circulation, Interlibrary Loan and Reserve area on the 1st floor was redesigned. The architect was L.S. Langmead. Beckman Associates were the consultants