Academic library

An academic library is a library that is attached to a higher education institution, which supports the curriculum and the research of the university faculty and students.^[1] According to the National Center for Education Statistics, there are an estimated 3,700 academic libraries in the United States.^[1] Class reading materials, intended to supplement lectures by the instructor and housed in academic libraries, have historically known as "reserves". Before electronic resources became available, the reserves were supplied as actual books or as photocopies of appropriate journal articles. Modern academic libraries provide access to electronic resources.

Academic libraries must determine a focus for collection development since comprehensive collections are not feasible. Librarians do this by identifying the needs of the faculty, student body, the mission and academic programs of the college or university. When there are particular areas of specialization in academic libraries, these are often referred to as niche collections. These collections are often the basis of a special collection department and they may include original papers, manuscripts, artwork, and artifacts written or created by a single author or about a specific subject.

There is a great deal of variation among academic libraries based on their size, resources, collections, and services. The Harvard Library, which houses over 20 million volumes, is the largest strictly academic library in the world,^[2][3] although the Danish Royal Library—a combined national and academic library—has a larger collection at about 37 million volumes.^[4] The University of California operates the largest academic library system in the world, managing about 41 million volumes across 100 libraries on ten campuses.^[5] Another notable example is the University of the South Pacific which has academic libraries distributed throughout its twelve member countries.^[1]