Libraries and Collections

Where scholarly research meets one-of-a-kind collections.

Northwestern University Libraries

About Northwestern Libraries

The Northwestern Libraries are an intellectual nexus for the Northwestern community and international scholars.

Visitors come for immense and varied collections, databases and electronic journals, governmental information and more.

Library Building Hours Libraries Website

University Library

The University Library has served as the main Evanston campus library since 1970.

Deering Library

The Charles Deering Memorial Library is a campus architectural landmark modeled after King's College Chapel in Cambridge, England. It houses several distinctive collections.

Seeley G. Mudd Library

The space provides an array of digital assets and tools that are consistent with Mudd's tech-focused history.

Galter Health Sciences Library

The Galter Health Sciences Library & Learning Center fosters the creation and sharing of knowledge among the faculty, staff and students of the Feinberg School of Medicine and its affiliates.

Pritzker Legal Research Center

The Pritzker Legal Research Center fulfills the complex and diverse research and educational information needs of the faculty and students of Northwestern Law.

The Boas Mathematics Library

The Mathematics Library has a research collection in pure mathematics and statistics of approximately 34,000 volumes.

Styberg Library

The Styberg Library (Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary) is one of the top theological research libraries in the United States. They serve the Northwestern community.

Library Collections

Explore our many notable collections.

Digital Collections

The open source software creates and preserves digital access to thousands of items from Northwestern’s rare and special collections.

Government & Geographic Information Collection

Serving as a federal depository since 1876, this collection features US government documents and maps, along with geospatial services for GIS data analysis and visualization.

Herskovits Library of African Studies

This is the largest independent Africana collection, covering subjects from art and history to science, technology, and cooking.

McCormick Library of Special Collections and University Archives

The collection is home to many of the Libraries' rarest materials, including manuscripts, archives, prints, artifacts, and all materials pertaining to Northwestern's history.

Music Library

One of the largest U.S. music collections, the library excels in 20th-century and contemporary classical music, holding nearly every new score published since 1945.

Transportation Library

The collection covers all transportation modes, including aviation, rail, highway, maritime, public transit, biking, walking, and logistics.

The Block Museum Collection

The museum’s collection of over 6,000 artworks supports interdisciplinary inquiry and fuels creative discovery and learning.

The Block collects modern and contemporary art globally across all mediums. Students, faculty, staff and visitors can directly engage with the museum’s quickly growing collection, which serves as a campus-wide catalyst for bold conversations, driving questioning, experimentation and collaboration.

EXPLORE THE COLLECTION

Featured Acquisition

Jordan Ann Craig’s Sharp Tongue: Used to Cut Deep (2024) transforms familial memory and Indigenous craft into a bold, geometric meditation on language, identity and abstraction.

Acrylic on canvas, 70 x 70 in. Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, Julie and Lawrence Bernstein Family Art Acquisition Fund purchase, 2024.17 Photo by JSP Art Photography.