Welcome to Columbia University Libraries

The Libraries are wonderful gathering places to pursue scholarly research, to learn about and use information technology, to write, to study, and to draw on our rich collection of print and electronic resources.

At your disposal is a fully integrated research library. Columbia’s Libraries, with 9.5 million volumes, 117,264 current serials, and an extensive collection of electronic resources, manuscripts, rare books, microforms, and other nonprint formats, ranks as one of the top ten academic library systems in the nation.

I hope you will explore one or more of the 25 libraries at Columbia and its affiliated institutions to access the rich array of both traditional and electronic information services.

It is our goal at the Libraries to provide excellent service to students and faculty that will advance each user’s learning, teaching, and research experience at Columbia and we strive to support library users anytime and anywhere. Our success is enabled by the outstanding staff that builds and manages the collections and technologies and provides strong and innovative services across the Columbia Libraries.

The Libraries are moving in a number of exciting directions. The 2006-2009 Strategic Plan provides an overview of our current objectives.

James G. Neal Vice President for Information Services And University Librarian