Since 1973, the Slavic and East European Library has been the focal point of the University of Illinois Summer Research Laboratory on Russia and Eastern Europe. Over the past nearly half-century, the Lab has served as “an intellectual summer camp” for professors, independent scholars and advanced graduate students. Thousands of scholars from hundreds of institutions in Canada, the United States and dozens of other countries have attended the Lab, to work with one of the largest and best Slavic and Eastern European library collections in North America. Besides providing access to the library and its reference staff, the Summer Research Lab also hosts workshops for graduate students and junior scholars, organizes lectures and film screenings, and sponsors the annual summer conference, “The Ralph and Ruth Fisher Forum.”