Brown University Library

The Brown University Library is central to the Brown’s teaching and research mission. With a collection that includes approximately 7 million volumes (including over 2 million ebooks), nearly 150,000 online journals, more than 500 databases, and over 15,000 linear feet of manuscripts and archives, the Brown Library is one of the largest academic libraries in New England. In addition, Brown faculty and students may borrow from the collections of other Ivy libraries (some 90 million titles) as well as obtain materials from libraries around the globe through interlibrary loan. The Brown Library system consists of five campus buildings as well as the nearby Library Collections Annex (an off-campus high-density storage facility with a shelving capacity of 1.5 million volumes). The John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Library houses the Library’s collections for the humanities, social sciences, and fine arts. It is also home to the Center for Digital Scholarship, a hub of leading-edge digital projects, including the Mellon-funded Digital Publications Initiative. The Sciences Library supports research in the STEM fields, along with the George S. Champlin Health Sciences Library (located in the Alpert Medical School), which provides digital resources and infrastructure to medical students and faculty. Brown’s world-renowned special collections of rare books, manuscripts, archives, and ephemera are housed in the John Hay Library and the Library Annex. A Carnegie library, the exquisitely restored Hay offers extensive exhibition space, promoting engagement with Brown’s unique holdings for students, faculty, and the broader community. The Virginia M. Orwig Music Library consolidates Brown’s extensive music materials and is home to the Walter Neiman ‘46 Archive of Sound Recordings as well as more than 24,000 musical scores.