Here a blurb from the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency website regarding the two libraries. The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library is the premier repository for materials relating to the history of the Prairie State. The ISHL was created in 1889 by the Illinois General Assembly, which charged the new library with collecting and preserving "books, pamphlets, manuscripts, monographs, writings, and other materials of historical interest and useful to the historian, bearing upon the political, religious, or social history of the State of Illinois from the earliest known period of time." A century later the Illinois State Historical Library continues its mission under the new Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library. The Library is a public, non-circulating research facility that contains material on all aspects of Illinois' history. Particularly noteworthy are the Library's holdings in published resources, manuscripts, newspapers, audiovisual, and Lincolniana. The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library is a division of the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. In addition to the Library, the Agency oversees state and federal preservation programs in Illinois and manages 58 state-owned historic sites and memorials. That's all, folks. Jeanne