To pass beneath the stern face of Athena, goddess of wisdom, peering down from atop the north entrance to Doe Library is to enter a temple to the truth born from coexisting contradictions: sciences and humanities, objectivity and subjectivity, form and function.
Awe and wonder perhaps best describe the feeling one experiences upon entering a library.
Like many other objects of our amazement — a starry night, a giant sequoia or a vast sea — a library is a common ground for our humanity, capable of being appreciated by all. The value of a library is the value of truth, nature or beauty.
And much like the things to which we attribute value, libraries do not provide all the answers to our questions; rather, they beckon us forth, challenging us to find them for and within ourselves.
– Jonathan Hale, staff photographer
The Hargrove Music Library also features stained glass windows. (Jonathan Hale/Staff)
The East Asian library is among the largest collections of its kind in the United States, containing more than a million volumes of literature in East Asian languages. (Jonathan Hale/Staff)
A collection of manila envelopes in the Earth Sciences and Map Library. (Jonathan Hale/Staff)
A decorative installment in Doe’s North Reading Room. (Jonathan Hale/Staff)
The glimmering pages of an open book in the Earth Sciences and Map Library. (Jonathan Hale/Staff)
Looking up at the C.V. Starr East Asian Library on a gray afternoon. (Jonathan Hale/Staff)
A snake plant (Dracaena trifasciata) growing in the Berkeley Law Library. (Jonathan Hale/Staff)
Colorful pebbles line the bed of a floral display in the law library, which houses almost 875,000 volumes and volume equivalents. (Jonathan Hale/Staff)
Designed by renowned architect John Galen Howard, Charles Franklin Doe Memorial Library features a bust of Athena overlooking its north entrance intended to embody UC Berkeley’s goal of becoming the “Athens of the West”. (Jonathan Hale/Staff)
Sun beams into the East Asian library. (Jonathan Hale/Staff)
Tiles lining the sides of Jean Gray Hargrove Music Library. (Jonathan Hale/Staff)
Stained glass in the Bioscience, Natural Resources & Public Health Library, located in the heart of the Valley Life Sciences Building. (Jonathan Hale/Staff)
