The current Biological Sciences Library developed from several separate collections. Originally started as small office collections, the separate Morphology and Zoology collections were combined in1908 when their respective departments merged together. In the fall of 1926, the Animal Biology collection, which had been kept in various laboratories and offices, merged with the Zoology collection, due to the divisions of Systematic Zoology and Animal Biology merging into one Department of Zoology. In 1927 the Zoology department moved into a building known as the Zoology Building (now known as the Biology Building) which had been vacated by the College of Medicine. A room in the northwest corner of the third floor was set aside for library use.
In 1992, the Botany and Biology Departments were administratively merged into the present Biological Sciences Department. By 1997 the Biology Library had become known as the Biological Sciences Library. In January 1999 the Botany collection in the Chemistry library was merged into the Biology collections. Later that year, the newly remodeled Biology Annex building officially became known as the Biological Sciences Library.
In the summer of 2010, the library will be renamed the “Sciences Library”, in order to better represent the consolidation of the geoscience and physics library into this building, as well as psychology reserves.