Completed 47 years ago in 1978 on the east side of campus, the five-story library was funded by the U.S. Department of Commerce.

The library was temporarily housed in the old Willard School on Sixth Street in Missoula before a permanent structure was built on the UM campus.

After one year at the old Willard School, library holdings totaled at 1,369 volumes, 19 periodicals, and 20 newspapers.

The University of Montana library has moved several times as the collection size expanded beyond the location's available capacity.

The library has roughly 100 computer workstations for students, staff and faculty, and has seven for the general public.

The Center has broadened its original focus on East and Northeast Asia to include South and Southeast Asia, an evolution that reflects growing American interests in these sub-regions of a dynamic continent with ever-growing links to the United States.