* Robert Bingham Downs; Author of 50 Books

Robert Bingham Downs, 87, retired director of one of the nation’s largest university libraries and author of the best-seller “Books That Changed the World.” Downs wrote more than 50 books, including the 1956 best-seller, which was translated into 17 languages. During Downs’ 28-year tenure at the University of Illinois (1943 to 1971) the school’s library became the third-largest university library in the country. “As a scholar, information scientist and defender of intellectual freedom, Robert Downs had few equals. He was a man of vast intellect, integrity and conviction,” said Richard Dougherty, president of the American Library Assn. and professor at the University of Michigan. In Urbana, Ill., on Sunday.