Lafayette joins Center for Research Libraries

The Lafayette Libraries is now a member of The Center for Research Libraries (CRL), a partnership of more than 200 university, college, and independent research libraries. CRL acquires and preserves newspapers, journals, government documents, archives, and other primary source materials, making them available to researchers through interlibrary loan and digital delivery. Its holdings of international newspapers, U.S. ethnic newspapers, and foreign dissertations are particularly rich.

Lafayette faculty and students now have access to this collection via interlibrary loan. There’s no limit to the number of items that can be requested, loan periods are six months, and renewals are unlimited unless the item has been recalled for another researcher. CRL also delivers materials in digital format to support research and teaching, and a growing number of digital collections are available. The Center’s “Demand Purchase Program” even allows Lafayette users to request the purchase foreign dissertations, newspapers, and microform archives not already available in the collection.

CRL resources include:

• 6,500 international newspapers, some from as early as the 1700s
• 2,000 U.S. ethnic newspapers
• Early trade and industrial journals from both the U.S. and foreign countries
• Access to rich holdings in STE print serials through a partnership with the Linda Hall Library
• More than 800,000 foreign dissertations

You can identify CRL materials you’d like to use by searching the CRL Catalog or you can learn more about their offerings by consulting one of their many Topic Guides. Records for CRL’s digital materials will also soon be available in the Lafayette Library Catalog.

More information is available at our page on CRL collections.