American University - Library System

Library System

The Jack I. and Dorothy G. Bender Library and Learning Resources Center is the main library facility for the campus. A branch Music Library is located in the Katzen Art Center. The Pence Law Library, part of AU's Washington College of Law, operates separately from the main library system. The University Library is part of the Washington Research Library Consortium (WRLC), which includes seven other libraries. The WRLC operates a consortium loan service between member institutions and has a shared collections site in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. About 20% of American University's collections are held at the WRLC.

The Bender Library provides a variety of individual and group study spaces and includes a Curriculum Materials Center, a New Media Center, Graduate Research Center, classrooms, and a café. Students can connect their laptops, PDAs or cell phones to the Internet from anywhere in the library. About 160 public computer workstations are available throughout the Bender building and researchers also may borrow laptops.

As of 2011, American University Library provides access to more than 700,000 print books, 60,000 online magazines and journals, over 41,000 media and sound recordings, and over 14,000 musical scores. Recent statistics show that over 625,000 researchers visit the library per year and the web site receives close to 1.4 million unique visits per year.

The Library's Archives and Special Collections houses unique and rare materials and information on the history of the institution. The University Archives is the repository for papers and other documents, including sound recordings and photographs, spanning more than a century of the University's history. Special Collections houses rare materials. Among the more important holdings are the Artemas Martin collection of mathematical texts, the Charles Nelson Spinks collection of artistic and historical works of Japan, the Irwin M. Heine collection of literary works, and Christopher Johnson collection of William Faulkner books. Playbills form a significant set of the collections with the James Carroll and Iris Lipkowitz collections most notable among them. Other significant collections include the Barlett & Steele Archive, the John R. Hickman Collection, the Friends of Colombia Archives, the Records of the National Peace Corps Association, the Records of the National Commission on the Public Service, the Sally L. Smith Papers, and the Records of Women Strike for Peace.