The University of Minnesota Libraries collectively have 6,975,576 volumes at the Twin Cities Campus, Crookston Campus, Duluth Campus, Morris Campus, and Rochester Campus. The Elmer L. Andersen Library on the Twin Cities Campus, which opened in 2000, was designed by Stageberg Beyer Sachs, Inc.
It includes two artificial underground caverns – each of which is two stories high and as long two football fields – holds 1,500,000 volumes, as well as manuscripts and artifacts. The caverns lie beneath sixty feet of limestone, clay, gravel, and topsoil.
The caverns constitute Andersen Library’s Minnesota Library Access Center. One cavern holds the University of Minnesota’s collections of archival materials and manuscripts, while the other holds little-used materials from libraries throughout the state.
The Archie Givens, Sr. Collection of African American Literature at the Andersen Library is a collection of African American literature, biography, social science, art, notes, manuscripts, and inscriptions. In 1985, with the help of others, the family of Archie Givens, Sr. (1919-1974) & Phebe Mae Givens purchased the 3,000-item collection of Richard Lee Hoffman, a playwright and former professor of English at New York City Technical College in Brooklyn.
The Children’s Literature Research Collections (LCLRC) at the Andersen Library contains six core collections. These include the Kerlan Collection of Children’s Literature, the Paul Bunyan Collection, the Laura Jane Musser Collection of Oziana materials, and the Illustrated Treasure Island Collection.
The Andersen Horticultural Library, a research library at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, has almost 20,000 volumes and 300 subscriptions for magazines, scholarly journals, and newsletters. The College of Science & Engineering and University Libraries support the Charles Babbage Institute (CBI) Archives.
The Bell Library is located on the 4th floor of the O. Meredith Wilson Library on the Twin Cities Campus. The collection consists of 25,000 items (rare books, maps, manuscripts, pamphlets, broadsides, and assorted other printed documents including trade treaties between Western and Eastern monarchs, and diaries) that date between 400 and 1825 A.D. A highlight of the collection is the twelve-volume atlas Le grand atlas, ou cosmographie Blaviane en laquelle est exactement descritte la terre, la mer, et le ciel, published in Amsterdam in 1667, which belonged to Pope Clement XI.
The University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill Library has 6,735,325 volumes. The libraries on campus include the Davis (Main) Library, the Sloan Art Library, the Stone Center Library for Black Culture & History, The Park Library of the School of Journalism & Mass Communication, the UNC Health Science Library, the Katherine L. Everett Law Library, the Institute of Marine Sciences Library, Kenan Science Library (Room G301 of Venable Hall), the Science Library Annex to Wilson Library, the Robert B. House Undergraduate Library, and the Louis Round Wilson Special Collections Library.
The University of Pennsylvania Libraries (Penn Libraries) collectively have 6,223,214 volumes. The Penn Libraries are the Annenberg School for Communication Library, the Biomedical Library, the Chemistry Library, the Dental Medicine Library, the Engineering Library, the Fine Arts Library, the Library at the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, LIBRA – Penn Libraries research Annex, the Biddle Law Library, the Lippincott Library of the Wharton School, the Math/Physics/Astronomy Library, The Museum Library, the Otto E. Albrecht Music Library, the Rare Book & Manuscript Library (on the 6th floor of the Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center), the Van Pelt Library, and the Veterinary Libraries (Steven W. Atwood Library & Information Commons – Philadelphia Campus and Jean Austin du Pont Veterinary Library – New Bolton Center), LIBRA houses 1,600,000 volumes, less-frequently used scholarly works. The Pennsylvania Hospital Medical Library is one of the Associated Libraries.
The Ohio State University Libraries have 6,206,443 volumes. The OSU Libraries are the Agricultural Technical Institute Library; the Architecture Library; the Arthur E. Baggs Memorial Library; the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum; the Biological Sciences/Pharmacy Library; the University Library Book Depository; the Bromfield Library, which serves the OSU Mansfield Campus and North Central State College; Center for Epigraphical & Palaeographical Studies; the Fine Arts Library; the Food, Agricultural and Fine Arts Library; the Geology Library; the Goldthwait Polar Library; the Health Sciences Library; the Lima Campus Library; the Marion Campus Library; the Moritz Law Library; the Music/Dance Library; the Newark Campus Warner Library; The Ohio Agricultural Research And Development Center; the Science & Engineering Library; the Thompson Library; the University archives; and the Samuel & Marian Hodesson Veterinary Medicine Library. They are supported by the Libraries Tech Center.
The Duke University Libraries have 6,031,761 volumes. The William R. Perkins Library is spread out over three buildings: the Perkins and Roy & Merilee Bostock buildings and the von der Heyden Pavilion. It houses social sciences and humanities materials. The other libraries of the Perkins Library System are the Pearse Memorial Library, located in Beaufort at the Duke Marine Laboratory; the Biological & Environmental Sciences Library; the Music Library, including the Music Media Center; the Lilly Library; and the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
Princeton University Libraries collectively have over 6,000,000 volumes and 5,000,000 manuscripts. There are eleven libraries on campus. Note that the Princeton Firestone Library is undergoing renovations in phases that will take ten years to complete.