Students, faculty and staff members of Yale have access to one of the world's largest libraries. With collections housed in more than 20 buildings on campus, the Yale Libraries have holdings of more than 10,000,000 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 16 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, to refurbish several of its reading rooms, and to house a newly constructed music library.
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 an outdoor sculpture garden by Isamu Noguchi are some of the things 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 here to study medieval manuscripts, read 18th-century newspapers, consult modern literary manuscripts or investigate topics ranging from Reformation theology 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 exhibitions "Yankees in Eden/Treasures from Eden" (open though September) feature ancient artifacts from Yale's Babylonian Collection and documents that trace the history of Near Eastern studies at Yale. "Contested Terrain" (on view October-December) takes as its subject the greater Southwest through five centuries. The artist and printmaker Fritz Eichenberg is the subject of the winter exhibit (January-March), while the spring exhibition will be devoted to collectors and collecting at Yale.
The Beinecke Library is located at 121 Wall St. Reading room hours are Monday-Friday, 8:30 a.m.-4:45 p.m. The exhibition area is open Monday-Friday, 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m., and on Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. The library is closed on Labor Day, Thanksgiving weekend, Dec. 21-Jan. 3, and for the observance of Memorial Day and July 4. It is also closed on Saturdays during Yale recesses. For more information, call 432-2977 or visit the library's website at www.library.yale.edu/beinecke/brblhome.htm.
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) 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. Photocopies 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'
website at www.library.yale.edu for information about specific libraries
and collections, library hours, directions and research tips.
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