Collections
Yale Library builds organizes, preserves, and provides access to collections in support of the university mission and the worldwide research community. We collect materials in a wide range of physical and digital formats. Our collections include access to electronic journals, datasets, and other resources licensed by the library for Yale community use. We are committed to sustainable stewardship and to expanding access to our collections through digitization and innovation in collection discovery.
Digital Collections
Digitization of collections is a Yale Library strategic priority. Millions of images, texts, and recordings are already available online, and new materials are being added regularly, based on uniqueness and research demand. We are working to structure and describe our digital collections in ways that support computational research and make materials easier to discover through the widest possible range of research platforms and tools.
Contact us
Research consultation
Tell us about your research project, and we will connect you with a librarian or other expert to help.
Personal librarians
Let us introduce you to the library system and help you locate materials for class assignments.
Subject specialists
Find a librarian with specialized expertise to support your research and teaching.
General Collections
Visiting researchers and members of the public may sign up for different levels of library privileges to request and borrow from our circulating collections housed at multiple libraries and off-site. See all borrowing programs.
Special Collections
Yale Library Special Collections encompasses an extraordinary range of rare or fragile materials that are used by students, researchers, and other visitors to explore the past and create new knowledge. Collections range from ancient papyri and medieval manuscripts to modern organizational records and personal papers of modern writers and statesmen in both physical and born-digital formats. All these collections are free and open to the campus community and visiting researchers with a simple one-time registration process.
Beinecke Library is Yale Library's largest special collections repository, and one of the most significant such collections in the world. More than 200 library staff at Beinecke Library and other Yale Library locations collaborate to support teaching, learning, research and practice across specialized collections, including the University Archives, Lewis Walpole Library, Medical Historical Library, and Divinity Library Special Collections.