Herman B Wells Library (Bloomington, Indiana)

 library, 1969_construction, academic building

IU's Herman B Wells Library is the 13th-largest university library in North America. Prior to a ceremony in June 2005 when it was renamed for IU's beloved former chancellor, this building was simply called the Main Library. Built in 1969, the building contains 11 floors in the graduate tower and five floors in the undergraduate tower. The building also contains the Information Commons, a fully-integrated technology center for learning and collaboration -- open 24 hours a day, seven days a week -- which attracts 82 percent of all undergraduate students. (IU Libraries recently earned their highest ranking ever, advancing to 12th place in a survey of North American academic research libraries.)

An oft-repeated urban legend holds that the library sinks over an inch every year because when it was built, engineers failed to take into account the weight of all the books that would occupy the building. The IU Libraries website even hosted an official page dedicated to debunking this myth for a brief period of time in 1999-2000; stating, among other things, that the building's foundation rests squarely on a 94 foot thick sheet of limestone.