Stop #5: The Schurz Library

You are now standing in front of the Schurz Library, opened in 1989 and named after Franklin Schurz Sr., patriarch of the family that managed the South Bend Tribune for five generations. His son, Franklin Schurz Jr., funded the Opportunity Scholarship for Black and Latino Students at IU South Bend.

The Schurz Library was designed to take advantage of excellent views overlooking the St. Joseph River and the IU South Bend campus. Our library is part of the wider IU system, which is one of the largest university library systems in the world! Millions of titles are available to our students either on location or through our interlibrary loan with other IU campuses. If that isn’t enough for you, students also have the option of getting a guest library card at the other school in South Bend, the University of Notre Dame. The library has helpful staff, a computer lab, a coffee café, microwave for heating up late-night snacks, and more.

If you look around outside the library, you may realize that you’re standing near our Peace Pole, which  carries the message “May Peace Prevail on Earth” in many languages. The Peace Pole Project began in 1955 in Japan.

Now it is time for the most photographable part of our tour, Stop #6, the IU South Bend Bridge!