With holdings of over three million volumes and a growing collection of online resources, the Rutgers University Libraries rank among the nation's top research libraries. Comprised of more than two dozen libraries, centers, and reading rooms located on Rutgers` campuses in New Brunswick/Piscataway, Camden, and Newark, and RU-Online, a digital library, the libraries provide the resources and services necessary to support the university`s mission of teaching, research, and service.

There are two large research libraries on the New Brunswick/Piscataway campuses: the Library of Science and Medicine, which houses the primary collections in behavioral, biological, earth, and pharmaceutical sciences, and engineering; and the Archibald S. Alexander Library, which provides extensive humanities and social sciences collections. The Mabel Smith Douglass Library supports undergraduate education and houses the primary collections for women's studies and the performing arts. The Kilmer Library is the primary business library in New Brunswick/Piscataway and provides support for undergraduate instruction. There are also several specialized libraries and collections in the New Brunswick/Piscataway area: Alcohol Studies, Art, Stephen and Lucy Chang Science, Chemistry, East Asian, Mathematical Sciences, Music, and Physics libraries as well as Special Collections and University Archives. The Scholarly Communication Center supports the development and integration of scholarly, scientific, and educational information into the mainstream through a wide range of innovative digital services. The Margery Somers Foster Center is a resource center and digital archive on women, scholarship, and leadership.

The John Cotton Dana Library in Newark, which also houses the Institute of Jazz Studies, supports all undergraduate and graduate programs offered on the Newark campus with an emphasis on business, management, and nursing. The Robeson Library in Camden houses a broad liberal arts collection that supports all undergraduate and graduate programs offered on the Camden campus. Law libraries are also located on both the Camden and Newark campuses and have separate policies and online catalogs. The law library at Newark houses an extensive criminal justice library.

The libraries web site at http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu provides access to numerous online resources. Library users can search IRIS, the online catalog, to identify materials owned by Rutgers libraries located in Camden, Newark, and New Brunswick/Piscataway as well as many online resources. Students, faculty, and staff can also access a wide variety of electronic indexes and abstracts, full-text electronic journals, research guides, and library services online, both from campus and remotely. The libraries provide hundreds of CD-ROM titles in addition to online resources.

Rutgers University students, faculty, staff, and alumni are entitled to borrow materials from any of the Rutgers University libraries. The Rutgers Delivery Service, Interlibrary Loan Service, and E-ZBorrow allow students, faculty, and staff to request books and journal articles located at distant Rutgers libraries or outside the university. Requests may be submitted online through the libraries' web site. The loan period for Rutgers undergraduate students is 28 days. All materials, regardless of loan period or borrower's privileges, are subject to recall.

Librarians, many with advanced subject expertise, are available at all the major libraries to answer questions and assist with research projects, including online and print-based search strategies. Individual assistance is available at reference desks or through the online "Ask a Librarian" service. Librarians also provide in-class teaching at instructor's request.

The libraries are committed to providing equal access to services and collections for all library patrons. Users with disabilities may request special services through the circulation or reference department in each library.