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Celebrating a Semicentennial: 50 Years of the UNO Library Exhibit Opens

The exhibit, Celebrating a Semicentennial: 50 Years of the UNO Library, explores 50 years of the UNO Library through documentary evidence and is open through the fall semester.

  • published: 2026/06/02
  • contact: Claire Dunker - Archives and Special Collections
  • email: cdulaney@unomaha.edu
Built in wooden display shelves with ephemera, and other items associated with Criss Library and the 50th anniversary of Criss Library.

Celebrating a Semicentennial: 50 Years of the UNO Library, provides a history of the UNO Library, 1976-2026, through documentary evidence of committees, events, and services. This a companion display to the photo exhibit in the UNO Criss Library Osborne Family Gallery.

Originally known as the University Library, the groundbreaking for the building occurred in the fall of 1974. The library was dedicated on September 12, 1976 and opened for campus and community. For 50 years, the UNO Library employees have provided extensive and significant patron-facing services but rarely has the minutiae of running a library been seen. This exhibit, Celebrating a Semicentennial, offers a glimpse into that work. The display is composed of annual reports, documents about Library Faculty and Teaching Overloads, long-lost books returned, the inner workings of the Courtesy Committee and more.

Explore the 50 years of the library through a documentary lens and learn some of the ways that library employees historically have and continue to provide services, facilitate research, support students, faculty, staff, and community, and participate in their own scholarship and service endeavors.

All items on display are from the UNO Criss Library Archives and Special Collections department. To learn more about the history of the library, contact the Archives and Special Collections department.

Celebrating a Semicentennial: 50 Years of the UNO Library, is located on the first floor of Criss Library. During Summer hours, Criss Library is open to the public Monday-Thursday 7AM-9PM, Friday 7AM-5PM, Saturday 9AM-5PM and Sunday 12PM-9PM. Check here for holiday hours and updates on opening and closing times. This exhibit was curated by Claire Dunker, Outreach Archivist.

About Criss Library

The Dr. C.C. and Mabel L. Criss Library fulfills the UNO mission through dynamic services, highly qualified and adaptive personnel, unique and extensive collections, and accessible learning spaces and environments. With its location on UNO’s Dodge Campus, Criss Library provides UNO students, faculty and staff, and the Omaha community with the resources and materials needed to excel academically and professionally.