University of California Libraries

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The University of California operates the largest academic library system in the world. It manages more than 32,000,000 items in 100 libraries on ten campuses. The primary purposes of these libraries are to assist research and instruction on the University of California campuses. While each campus library is separate, they share (under the UC library system) facilities for storage, computerized indexing, digital libraries and management.

The UC libraries also manage a digital library, the California Digital Library. They also hold a large number of special collections and electronic archives of research documents. Special collections include a number of historical archives on california history, federal depositories, law libraries, specialized collections for medical and scientific research, and a comprehensive series of periodicals.

A major concern of the library system at this time (2005) is the rising cost of scientific journal subscriptions, and the costs of renting article databases. The library is leading an effort to publish science in a persistently-available electronic format, primarily through a digital repository called the eScholarship repository.

[edit] Policies

The UC Library system has open stacks at most libraries, and permits free research and reading by the public. In addition, all campuses allow any California resident to apply for a library card and thus gain limited borrowing privileges for libraries on that campus, although there is typically a charge for these cards.

Materials may be borrowed between the UC campus libraries through interlibrary loan; it is generally possible for a student or other university associate to order a nonfragile, unreserved item and have it within a few days. Books may take between a day to a week to be delivered between campuses.