Lafayette College Library

Collections

Lafayette's libraries provide students with a wide range of information sources and services developed to support their educational pursuits. The David Bishop Skillman Library is the college's main library, with a collection of more than 500,000 volumes. The Fred Morgan Kirby Library has an additional 30,000 volumes related to government and law. The two libraries subscribe to about 2,200 magazines, journals, and newspapers in paper form and provide full text, online access to thousands of additional titles.

The Lafayette College Special Collections and College Archives collection is available for student research and features especially strong holdings relating to the Marquis de Lafayette, Stephen Crane, and angling.

The libraries provide access to information sources far beyond what is held within the physical confines of its two buildings. Students have the capability to use the library's extensive array of electronic resources wherever they have an Internet connection. Students also have borrowing privileges at five other colleges in the Lehigh Valley and may use our library's interlibrary loan services to request materials from libraries across the country.

Services

A staff of librarians helps students to use the libraries' resources to obtain the information they need. Librarians meet with classes in all disciplines and provide group instruction in library research. Reference assistance is available to students on weekdays, most evenings, and Sundays; assistance may be requested in person, by phone, and via email or IM. Students may arrange Personalized Research Assistance sessions with librarians for extended consultations about their research projects.

Facilities

Lafayette's libraries also provide space for students to study and collaborate with one another. Kirby Library is housed in the Beaux-Arts style Kirby Hall of Civil Rights, which was completed in 1930 and renovated in the late 1990s. The library's classically-inspired, oak-paneled reading room is among the most beautiful interior spaces on campus.

Skillman Library was expanded and renovated in 2004. The new library is spacious and light-filled and provides ample room for learning and study, technology, and library collections. Among the newly created spaces are a formal reading room, two instruction rooms, a digital media lab, a variety of individual and group study spaces, and a common room with a cafe.