Far back in the mists of ancient time, in the great and glorious days of the Twentieth Century, life was wild, rich, and largely running on stone knives and bearskins. Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear when there were no cellphones, DVDs, MP3 players, instant messaging, Google, or even a world wide web - to a time when the internet itself had only recently been invented by Al Gore (and a mere eleven percent of people in America had even used it). The fateful year was 1995. The Information Technology Department - then called the Academic Computing Center - had only recently brought internet access to the campus, but the B. Davis Schwartz Memorial Library was already there, preparing for the next technological leap in services to the Long Island University community. In those days, spirits were brave, the stakes were high, and surfing the net was a text only affair on a browser called Gopher. But there were hushed rumors that something more was coming. Sensing that this was the wave of the future, we at the library (okay, it was just me) began experimenting with the now familiar - but then strange - hypertext mark-up language. In September 1995, this was the very first version of the library website:

Everyone hated it, so it never saw the light of day. But, after many more experimental designs, most so bad that I won't offend your eyes with them here, the library website finally went live on December 4, 1995:

For the next seven years, it would continue with this same basic look - only the background graphic being changed to a more refined white with gray specks - but its content would continually grow, the eight main subject headings evolving to the twelve that are listed today. As new technologies became available, the Electronic Resources section expanded into Databases, Electronic Reserves, and Internet Resources.

The original About the Library section...

...that at first offered very little actual information about the library, now provides a much fuller picture and has been joined by a companion section, called Library Resources, that describes the library's many collections and (you guessed it) resources.

And, while there had always been many Library Services that were made available to students and faculty...

...they were not yet well represented on the webpage. (A click on the links or images will show you the current versions)

But perhaps the biggest area of expansion, besides the addition of online resources that did not even exist back in 1995, was in the Publications section that started out with a mere twelve items - only nine of which were actually linked - and a promise of "More coming soon"...

...to a list of over 175 webpages that have been divided into three sections. Library Newsletters keep you up to date on library news, resources, and services. Getting Started provides guides to doing different kinds of library research, pathfinder bibliographies for many subjects (to help give you a head start in finding sources of information), and examples of the different citation styles (so that you can properly cite those sources when writing your papers). And the encyclopedic Information/Publications, written by our librarians, offers pages on a variety of topics from African American history to illuminated manuscripts to Long Island demographics to baby pandas.

In 2002, there was a university-wide redesign of all webpages to create a more consistent look, and the library followed suit to the design it bears today:

The What's New at the Library page had been added years earlier to indicate which pages were new or updated, but, in 2005, it was expanded into a blog-like format to fill in the gaps between newsletters, enabling the Long Island University community to be immediately informed about new resources and services as soon as they become available. It also regularly provides news, tips, and tricks to help students and faculty make the most out of their academic experience ... with more coming soon.

To see more changes that have occurred in the library over the
past few years, check out the Library Renovations page.