Re: Biggest University Library In The World
Siri Vonbank
Harvard Library is the network of Harvard University's libraries and services. It is the oldest library system in the United States and both the largest academic library and largest private library in the world.[4][5] Its collection holds over 20 million volumes, 400 million manuscripts, 10 million photographs, and one million maps.[6]
Until 1676, the library was based in Old College building. That year, it moved to Harvard Hall, where it remained until 1764 when the building and the library's entire collection was destroyed in a fire. The collection had 5,000 titles and was the largest collection in British America before the fire. By 1764 it was the largest library in British America, with 5,000 volumes, but disaster struck that year when the library was destroyed by fire.[11] A new Harvard Hall was built, and 15,000 books were collected to create the new library.[11] After the fire, readers in the library were not allowed candles or lamps and if there was a fire burning in the hearth, a librarian or assistant had to be present. Patrons were allowed to borrow and return up to three books at a time on Friday mornings and were allowed to keep them for up to six weeks.[11] Thomas Hollis V, great-nephew of one of the university's early benefactors, began shipping thousands of specially chosen volumes to the library. Hollis continued to send books regularly until his death in 1774, and he bequeathed 500 for the university to continue acquiring books. This became Harvard's first endowed book fund, and the fund has grown annually since. Harvard Library's online catalog, HOLLIS,[12] a bacronym for "Harvard On-Line Library Information System", is named after him.
Established in 2012, the Library Council on Student Experience is a joint council consisting of librarians and students from across the university who identify and work together on University-wide priorities identified by the council for improving the student library experience. The council is co-chaired by a librarian appointed by the vice president for Harvard Library and by a student elected from student council members. Students and librarians are nominated by the university's library directors and selected by the Office of the Provost. Other members include representatives from the Tell Us project, the Berkman Institute, and Harvard Library Shared Services. Terms are for two academic years. The Council makes recommendations to and is supported by the vice president for Harvard Library.
The largest public library in the United States and the second largest library in the world is the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., which is the de facto national library of the United States.[2] It holds more than 167 million items, including "more than 39 million books and other printed materials, 3.6 million recordings, 14.8 million photographs, 5.5 million maps, 8.1 million pieces of sheet music and 72 million manuscripts."[3] The largest research library in the United States is the Harvard Library in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
With a collection of 4 million volumes, the Sterling Memorial Library is the largest branch in the Yale University library system. The ornate building has an impressive book stack tower with 15 floors each representing a unique subject. The library was funded and designed by Yale graduates John William Sterling and James Gamble Rogers respectively. Its massive collection focuses on humanities and social science. Topics represented in the library include cultural studies from regions around the world, a historic map collection, a number of philosophic titles, a group of Babylonian volumes, the papers of Benjamin Franklin and many rare manuscripts.
Situated on the south end of the Harvard University campus, the Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library is part of the most extensive university library system in the world. Opened in 1915, the Widener Library functions as the core of over 70 libraries comprising the Harvard University library system. The beautiful brick building encompasses 320,000 square feet of space and includes an incredible 57 miles of bookshelves. Among the 3 million volumes housed in the library is one of the few existing copies of the Gutenberg Bible. A number of special collections are also housed in the library, including American, African, Asian, Judaic, German, Middle Eastern, Slavic, Iberian and Modern Greek.
Another appreciator of the written word, Empress Maria Theresa, decided to reopen the university library, and on May 13, 1777, she delivered on her promise. That said, the most valuable books stayed in their new home within the court library.
For more than 125 years, The University of Texas Libraries have been committed to building one of the greatest library collections in the world. Maintaining more than 10 million volumes and providing access to the latest digital journals, databases, and web resources, our libraries collect and preserve the finest achievements of human knowledge in support of not only research and instruction needs, but also the exploration of deep intellectual curiosities.
The Life Science Library is housed in the historic space that served as the original library for the university until 1977. Its extensive collections support cutting-edge scholarship in the biosciences, with a focus on biology, medicine, nutrition and pharmacy.
The Harvard University Herbaria include six collections and more than five million specimens of algae, bryophytes, fungi, and vascular plants. Together they form one of the largest university herbarium collections in the world, and the third largest herbarium in the United States. With their state-of-the art research laboratories and world class libraries, the HUH have been a centerpiece of biodiversity science since the early 1800s.
The library staff consists of more than 90 library faculty, 225 professional/technical/clerical staff, and 190 student assistants. Librarians at the University of Florida are tenure-track faculty. All have graduate degrees in Library Science or Information Studies, and/or a graduate degree in a relevant subject area. Some teach for-credit courses and they often make presentations that are incorporated into courses across campus. Library faculty serve the university community in the following roles:
The Irving S. Gilmore Music Library at Yale University is one of the largest collections of music scores, sound recordings, and music research materials in the United States. As such, the Music Library reflects the centrality of musical performance and scholarship to the University throughout its history. The library holds a wealth of printed, recorded, online, manuscript, and microform materials for the performance and study of music. These include approximately 100,000 scores and parts; 70,000 books about music; 35,000 LP recordings and compact discs; and 425 active subscriptions to music periodicals. Ebooks and online databases of articles (citations and full-text), books, scores, sound recordings (streaming audio), and video recordings (streaming video) allow Yale students and faculty to access materials from anywhere in the world, 24/7. Among the strengths of the Music Library collections are complete runs of nearly every available monumental set and composer's collected editions, and an extensive reference collection of encyclopedias, dictionaries, bibliographies, composer thematic catalogs, library catalogs, and discographies, including online reference resources. Hundreds of published facsimiles that recreate the appearance of early editions and important manuscripts, such as the Squarcialupi Codex and the Chansonnier of Jean de Montchenu, form another rich collection that enhances our understanding of the compositional process and physical forms in which music was made available during earlier periods.
WorldCat is the manifestation of the creativity and innovation of the staff of OCLC and thousands of librarians. Unique in scale and unparalleled in data quality, WorldCat makes library collections findable and accessible around the world.
Data about library collections, which house some of the most authoritative and unique resources in the world, is difficult to share directly from independent library catalogs. The collaborative nature of WorldCat helps libraries take advantage of linked data opportunities to lessen their workloads and to increase their online presence and discoverability. OCLC continues to explore linked data benefits for discovery, authority control, disambiguation and more as part of our work on numerous standards committees and community projects. OCLC also provides data services and downloadable data sets that help programmers and linked data practitioners create and improve their own applications with WorldCat data.
WorldCat provides the high-quality data that power discovery of library resources and make library collections visible to the largest resource-sharing community in the world. Since WorldCat is the foundation of WorldShare Interlibrary Loan, libraries can easily see the resources available from other libraries, borrow directly from them and share their resources to meet users' needs. WorldCat also allows borrowing libraries to link users directly to articles provided by lending libraries, giving users the instant access they expect.
More than stacks and study spaces, the network of libraries and resources comprising the Brown Library creates a laboratory for advancing scholarship. Students and faculty come to the library for expert guidance in navigating a world awash in information, experimenting with emerging digital tools and discovering ways to collaborate and innovate as they change the world.
The library ensures access to hundreds of online databases and tens of thousands of journals, newspapers and e-books, available to members of the Brown community from anywhere in the world at any time.
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