Columbia University Libraries

Columbia University Libraries
Country	United States
Type	Academic library system
Branches	25
Collection
Size	10.4 million
Other information
Director	James G. Neal
Website	http://library.columbia.edu/

The Columbia University Libraries is the library system of Columbia University. With over 10.4 million volumes, is the sixth largest academic library in the United States; it is the third largest library — and the largest academic library — in the State of New York. The system includes 25 libraries in total, primarily located on or near the university's Morningside Heights campus in New York City.

Facts and figures

The Columbia library system contains over 65,000 serial subscriptions, nearly six million microfilms, 26 million manuscripts, over 600,000 rare books, over 100,000 videos and DVDs, and nearly 200,000 government documents. The library's collection would stretch 174 miles end-to-end, and is growing at a pace of 140,000 items per annum. The system attracts over three million visitors a year.^[1]

The system is participating in the Google Books Library Project.

The libraries

The libraries in the Columbia system include:

Area Studies Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library Barnard College Library (affiliate) Biological Sciences Library Burke Library at the Union Theological Seminary Watson Library of Business & Economics at the Columbia Business School Butler Library Butler Media Center Columbia University Archives Electronic Data Service Electronic Text Service Milstein Undergraduate Library of Columbia College Oral History Research Office Rare Book & Manuscript Library Columbia University Archives (formerly Columbiana Library) Chemistry Library C.V. Starr East Asian Library

Ambrose Monell Engineering Library Geology Library Geoscience Library at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, New York Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at the Columbia University Medical Center in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan Jewish Theological Seminary Library (affiliate) Columbia Journalism School Library Arthur W. Diamond Law Library at the Columbia Law School Lehman Social Sciences Library at the School of International and Public Affairs Mathematics & Science Library Gabe M. Wiener Music & Arts Library Physics & Astronomy Library School of Social Work Library Gottesmann Libraries of Teachers College (affiliate)

Additionally, Columbia shares an off-site shelving facility, located in Plainsboro, New Jersey, with the Research Collections and Preservation Consortium (RECAP), which includes the New York Public Library and the library system of Princeton University.

Low Memorial Library, a prominent building on Columbia's campus emblazoned with the inscription "The Library of Columbia University", is no longer chiefly a library, serving instead as the university's administrative center. It was the university's central library from the 1890s to the 1930s, when due to shortage of space it was supplanted by Butler Library. The Columbia University Archives collection, formerly housed in Low, is now located within the Rare Book and Manuscript Library on the 6th floor of Butler Library.

References

1. ^ Fast Facts about Columbia University Libraries