The UM Libraries provide faculty, students, researchers, and staff with the highest quality access to collections and information resources in support of the University’s mission to transform lives through research, teaching, and service. The Libraries rank among the top research libraries in North America with a collection of over 4 million volumes and 123,652 current serials titles, including 122,530 electronic journals.
The Libraries include the interdisciplinary Otto G. Richter Library, which lies at the center of the Coral Gables campus, and five subject specialty libraries for architecture, business, marine and atmospheric science, medicine, and music. The School of Law on the Gables campus and the Department of Ophthalmology at the Miller School host libraries that are administered independently.
The Libraries provide support and services for approximately 10,849 undergraduates, 5,952 graduate students, and 15,091 full and part time faculty and staff.
- 4MVolumes
- 123KSerial Titles
- 10KUndergraduates
Subject Specialty Libraries
Architecture
The Paul Buisson Architecture Library holds historic preservation pamphlets and reports, architectural maps and drawings, sketchbooks, photographs, books, and journals.
Business
At the Judi Prokop Newman Information Resource Center, browse business e-journals, industry reports, and company profiles, get research assistance and bibliographic instruction.
Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science
The Rosenstiel School Library houses marine science databases, maps and nautical charts, rare books, and oceanographic and fisheries literature from around the world.
Medical
The Louis Calder Memorial Library holds books, journals, and databases covering healthcare and the biomedical sciences, and houses the History of Medicine and other special collections.
Music
Explore the Marta and Austin Weeks Music Library & Technology Center’s listening rooms, playback equipment, and music writing software, original scores and manuscripts, musical theater archives, music reference books, and more.
Cuban Heritage Collection, Special Collections, and University Archives
Through photographs, rare maps, letters, manuscripts, and other historic records, the Libraries’ unique and distinctive collections document artist’s books and countercultural ephemera, the Caribbean, Latin America, Cuba, South Florida, and the inspiring history of the University from the first ‘Cane.
New Spaces
Learning Commons
The Learning Commons is a pilot project to transform the UM Libraries into a hub for academic services, where students can get help with research, writing, creating, mapping, presenting, and more. Complementing the classroom experience, the Learning Commons helps students in all disciplines pursue their own intellectual goals in conversation with peers and experts and with access to scholarly and creative resources. By increasing the accessibility of services, it optimizes library space at the center of the Coral Gables campus. We are striving to create an inviting new learning environment that is symbolic of the University’s common purpose: to transform lives through teaching, research, and service.
Kislak Center
At the Otto G. Richter Library, a former lecture hall is being renovated and transformed into a place of learning and discovery to benefit the entire community. This revival of a historic community space in the midst of the campus’ cultural center will also serve as an attractive and accessible new home for the University’s Special Collections and Archives departments, which have outgrown their current spaces on the eighth floor.
Collaborations
Libraries and Museums
The Mellon Foundation has awarded a $500,000 grant to the University of Miami to support collaboration between the Lowe Art Museum and UM Libraries on their joint effort to further faculty engagement with historical and artistic collections.
The partnership was envisioned through the inaugural Academic Art Museum and Library Summit, held in January 2016, which brought together 14 pairs of library and museum directors from North American academic institutions to address opportunities for deep intra-institutional collaboration.
A white paper that reports on the findings of the 2016 AAML Summit is available in UM Libraries Scholarly Repository.
Campus Partners
The University of Miami Libraries’ Learning Commons is the result of collaboration with campus partners including the Camner Academic Resource Center, Academic Technologies, Writing Center, and Math Lab. The planning process to develop the vision, mission, and service model for the Learning Commons was facilitated by Brightspot Strategy and involved extensive user research and engagement. We’re now designing the physical space and anticipating renovation in Summer 2017!
A Librarian