I can think of no place more fitting for the Alumni Academic Hall of Fame than the Hodges Library.

I'd like us to think for a moment about the monuments that epitomize our culture. Churches, synagogues, and temples are the centers of faith and belief. Museums are places in which we seek inspiration from visual images or natural history. Baseball diamonds, football fields, and basketball courts are arenas that throb with our love for action and sport. Botanical and zoological gardens flourish because of our instinct to protect, house, and study our natural world. Even shopping malls are monuments, monuments that reflect our passion for consumerism. Each of these monuments has a special role in our culture.

Libraries are very special monuments. The library is absolutely fundamental to civilization and fundamental to our American culture. Our knowledge of prior civilizations is largely the result of the preservation of the written record by libraries. Historically, we've used libraries to preserve what is important and what is original, what is good and what is not so good. Libraries are the single cultural institution that cross barriers of race and religion and that have no boundaries. Thus it is especially fitting that UTK's Alumni Academic Hall of Fame be located in the beautiful and functional John C. Hodges Library.

The Hodges Library is a monument to civilization that crosses cultural barriers. It is also a living, breathing organism. You all know that, traditionally, some have likened libraries to the throbbing heart of the institution, carrying intellectual vibrancy to all parts of the University. Others have likened libraries to the digestive tract, absorbing and organizing information while eliminating the waste of time and energy.

Well, our library is certainly all of those things. But it's even more. As Bill Snyder told us so eloquently last March, at the celebration of our two-millionth volume, this library is the nerve-center of the University, bringing to all its parts the means to carry out their work, be it instructional, research, or public service. The library is a place alive with thought, inspiration, and creativity. It is a place that connects current minds with minds of the past. It is a source for information that spans the globe, encompassing all civilizations. Students and faculty study, gather and absorb information, and create new knowledge here. It is a place of exciting energy and creativity.

Like Bill Snyder, former UTK chancellor Jack Reese understood well the importance of the University Libraries to UTK students, faculty, and staff. Several years ago we honored his devotion to improving the resources and services of the Libraries and his vision of the central role of a new library -- the Hodges Library -- by naming this beautiful space the Jack E. Reese Galleria. I think it is particularly fitting that those alumni who have brought the University the greatest honor by their records of academic distinction, those people who could not have thrived without a library, should be honored here, in the Jack E. Reese Galleria of the John C. Hodges Library.

It is with great honor and great pleasure that I accept, on behalf of the University Libraries, trusteeship of the UTK Alumni Academic Hall of Fame.