Brooklyn College's original Library, La Guardia Hall, anchors the east end of the college campus, one of several lovely and harmonious Georgian buildings surrounding a large, tree-shaded green. The Library formerly occupied not only this recently restored 1936 building, whose commanding clocktower serves as the College's emblem and an important traditional symbol, but also an addition built thirty-six years ago, which increased the Library's space for services and collections to some 120,000 square feet.

In fall 1998 construction began on a major capital improvement project for renovation of the existing library and the addition of 105,000 square feet of space. Expanded seating and stack areas, with an emphasis on advanced technology in library services, will enhance the library’s role as the central information resource of the college.

The Library's mission, the provision of integrated information support for the College's instructional and research activities, is supported by collections totaling 1.2 million volumes, 5,000 periodical subscriptions, and significant electronic, audiovisual, and microform holdings. The Library adds approximately 15,000 new titles each year to its comprehensive humanities, social sciences, and sciences collections. The Library serves 16,000 students and a full-time faculty of 600.

The Brooklyn College Library is fully automated. Facilities include an integrated library system (using NOTIS software), a local area network with a direct connection to the Internet, extensive bibliographic and full-text holdings on CD-ROM, World Wide Web access, and multimedia collections. Some 95 percent of the library’s collection is represented in CUNY+, the online catalog. This catalog also shows the library’s journal holdings and provides acces to periodical indexes.

The College's academic computing program is also part of the Library. A state- of-the-art Faculty Training and Development Laboratory and three multimedia classrooms support this initiative.

The Field Library, one of the temporary on-campus library locations, houses Circulation, Information Services (including reference), Research and Access Services (including interlibrary loan and document delivery), Special Collections and Archives, the Office of the Chief Librarian, the LAN node, and Internet terminals. Circulating books are housed on the second floor and requested through paging slips. Requests are usually filled within 20 minutes. Roosevelt Library on the fourth floor of the Roosevelt Hall Extension, houses post-1980 periodicals (print and microforms), the reserve collection, government documents, and Internet terminals. Pre-1980 periodical material is currently stored off-campus. The Music Library is located in 372 Gershwin Hall and includes the music reference collection and music circulation services.

Brooklyn College librarians provide extensive reference service to faculty and students over the course of a sixty-four hour service week. The Library also has an active instruction program, providing training in the use of information resources in all formats for freshman English classes and advanced subject lectures for upper-division courses. The collaborative building and shaping of resources by librarians and faculty is a tradition at the College...one that has contributed to the significance of the collections, which are widely acknowledged to be among the best in the City University system. The library collection supports undergraduate and master’s-level study in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences.

Collecting Strengths
English and American literature, French literature, U.S. politics and government, American and European history, Special education, American music, Art (painting), Women's studies, African-American studies, Ethiopian, Somalian, and African history, Judaic studies, Chemistry (inorganic), Biology (microbiology; cytology), Physics (nuclear), and Archival holdings in Brooklyn studies, urban studies, and politics

Collecting Responsibilities
Africana Studies - Beth Evans, Anthropology - Mariana Regalado, Art - Miriam Deutch, Biology - Irwin Weintraub, Chemistry - Irwin Weintraub, Classics - Frederick Bogin, Computer Science - Susan Vaughn, Economics - Jocelyn Berger, Education - Renee Feinberg, Educational Services - William Gargan, English - William Gargan, Environmental Sciences - Irwin Weintraub, Film Studies - Barbara Scheele, Geology - Irwin Weintraub, Government Publications - Jane Cramer, Health and Nutrition Sciences - Irwin Weintraub, History - Frederick Bogin, Judaic Studies - Frederick Bogin, Law - Jane Cramer, Library Science - Barbara Scheele, Mathematics - Susan Vaughn, Modern Languages & Literatures - William Gargan, Music - Honora Raphael, Philosophy - Barbara Scheele, Physical Education - Renee Feinberg, Physics/Engineering - Susan Vaughn, Political Science - Renee Feinberg, Psychology - Renee Feinberg, Puerto Rican & Latino Studies - Beth Evans, Religious Studies - Barbara Scheele, Sociology - Jocelyn Berger, Speech - Jocelyn Berger, Student Affairs - William Gargan, Television and Radio - Barbara Scheele, Theater - Barbara Scheele, Women's Studies - Barbara Scheele

Not only do print and electronic formats support the College's celebrated core curriculum and other undergraduate and graduate programs, but the Library also holds important special collections, among these the Brooklyniana Collection, the Manuscripts Collection (including materials of Oscar Handlin and Sam Levenson), the Robert L. Hess Collection on Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa, the College Archives and the College Oral History Archives.

The Library acknowledges its responsibility to meet faculty and student information needs, wherever the materials they want actually reside; using traditional interlending and commercial document suppliers, the Research Services unit provides rapid, efficient access to remotely held materials.

The Library participates in cooperative activities and arrangements with other libraries in the Borough of Brooklyn (Academic Libraries of Brooklyn), in the metropolitan area (Metropolitan Reference and Research Agency-METRO), within the State of New York, and nationally (Online Computer Library Center-OCLC). The Brooklyn College Library is represented on the Council of Chief Librarians of the City University of New York. This body works closely to promote the development of system-wide library projects benefiting all CUNY libraries.