Students, faculty and staff members of Yale have access to one of the world's largest libraries. With collections housed in more than 30 buildings on campus, the Yale Libraries have holdings of more than 11,000,000 bound volumes, as well as vast groupings of maps, manuscripts, machine-readable data files, sound recordings, music scores, art works, coins, microforms, ancient clay tablets and other unique research material.
The Sterling Memorial Library, located at 120 High St., is the largest library on campus and serves as the center of the library system. It has 15 stack levels with books and journals devoted primarily to the humanities and social sciences. The stacks are closed to those without a valid Yale picture I.D. or a special visitor's access pass. Designed in the Gothic style and completed in 1930, this memorial to John W. Sterling (Yale 1864) is currently undergoing major renovations to improve environmental conditions for the stacks and to refurbish several of its reading rooms.
In addition to Sterling Memorial Library, many students visit the Cross Campus Library (CCL), which houses heavily used materials as well as those placed on reserve by the faculty. CCL is open during the academic terms 8:30 a.m.-2 a.m. Monday-Thursday; 8:30 a.m.-10 p.m. Friday; 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturday; and noon-2 a.m. Sunday.
The Gutenberg Bible, Audubon's "Birds of North America" and sculptures by Isamu Noguchi are some of the holdings visitors can see at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Constructed of Vermont granite and translucent marble panels, the building is one of the largest in the world devoted to rare books and manuscripts. Scholars from Yale and beyond come to the Beinecke to study its medieval manuscripts, read its 18th-century newspapers, consult its collections of modern literary manuscripts, or investigate topics ranging from Martin Luther's theological tracts to the history of the American West.
The library's exhibition area is dominated by a glass book tower, six stories high, which houses at its base nearly 4,000 incunables (books printed in Europe before 1500) and the 1742 Yale Library. Special exhibitions are on view throughout the year. The fall exhibition celebrates the centenary of the birth of Thornton Wilder with a selection of books, manuscripts, letters, photographs and memorabilia drawn from the playwright's papers and from the Wilder family archive. From late October through December, the library will show photographs by Yale graduate David Plowden. The exhibitions for spring term 1998 are "The Grand Tour: Eighteenth- Century English Travelers" (January-March) and "James Weldon Johnson: Renaissance Man" (April-June).
The Beinecke Library is located at 121 Wall St. Reading room hours are 8:30 a.m.-4:45 p.m. Monday-Friday. The exhibition area is open Monday-Friday, 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. and on Saturdays 10 a.m.-5 p.m. The library is closed Saturdays during Yale recesses, Labor Day, Thanksgiving weekend, Dec. 21-Jan. 2, Memorial Day and July 4. For more information, call 432-2977.
Other specialized libraries in the University Library system are Art & Architecture, Chemistry, Classics, Divinity School, Drama, Engineering and Applied Science, Forestry and Environmental Studies, Geology, Kline Science, Law, Lewis Walpole (located in Farmington, Connecticut), Mathematics, Medical, Mudd (includes the Government Documents Center), Music and Social Science.
Staff is available at the individual libraries to acquaint library users with the many resources, help with research problems, teach them how to use printed or computerized reference tools in various fields, and assist them in finding books at Yale or other libraries around the world. Orbis, the online catalog, attempts to provide a uniform access to the collections housed anywhere in the library system. While approximately 40 percent of materials held are identified in this catalog, a major effort is underway to complete the conversion of the libraries' catalogued records to online catalog within the next eight years. Photocopiers and computer workstations are available in most libraries.
For more information, call 432-1775 or contact staff at any of the service desks located in the libraries. Also consult the libraries' web site at www.library.yale.edu for information about specific libraries and collections, library hours, directions and re-search tips.