Last Updated: January 8, 2014
UNC Library System
A network of libraries and reading rooms across the campus support the University of North Carolina's academic and professional programs. More than seven hundred library staff provide library services to Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff as well as researchers from throughout North Carolina and across the globe. The University libraries combined holdings exceed 25,000,000 volumes; 5,000,000 microforms; 2,000,000 government publications; hundreds of thousands of audiovisuals, maps and photographs; and thousands of electronic titles. In terms of subject scope, campus libraries broadly cover the fine arts, biomedical, health and physical sciences, humanities, law, and social sciences.
The University Library, also known as the Academic Affairs Library, consists of the Walter Royal Davis Library, the main library that principally serves the humanities and social sciences; the Robert B. House Undergraduate Library that includes the major reserve reading materials and the Media Resources Center; the Louis Round Wilson Library, a special collections facility that includes the Manuscripts, Maps, and Rare Book collections, the North Carolina Collection and gallery; and nearly a dozen branch libraries covering art, biology, black culture and history, chemistry, geological sciences, information and library science, math/physics, marine sciences, music, and city and regional planning.
The Health Sciences Library, the Kathrine R. Everett Law Library, and several independent libraries, including, for example, the Carolina Population Center Library, Highway Safety Research Center Library, and Park Library of Journalism and Mass Communication complete the campus network.
The library system is a member of the Association for Research Libraries, a non-profit organization operated and maintained by its participating institutions for the sole purpose of increasing the library research materials available to its readers. The UNC-CH Library system also participates in the Triangle Research Libraries Network, a library consortium involving UNC-CH, North Carolina State University, Duke University, and North Carolina Central University, allowing UNC faculty, staff, and students to borrow materials from the other university libraries.
Health Sciences Library
The UNC Health Sciences Library (HSL) is the primary library for the UNC-CH Schools of Public Health, Medicine, Dentistry, Nursing, Pharmacy, and UNC Hospitals. It contains 347,141 total volumes and receives 7,535 serial titles. Hundreds of electronic journals and databases such as PubMed/MEDLINE, Global Health, EMBASE, ISI Citation Databases, BIOSIS, PsycINFO, UptoDate, and the Cochrane Library are available through the Library's website. The Health Sciences Library’s website gets over 2,500,000 page views annually. Faculty, staff, and students can easily access electronic resources from home. A total renovation of the library building was completed in early 2005. The library is fully wireless and equipped with 64 public computer workstations, 20 small group study rooms, 2 teaching labs with a total of 45 workstations, 3 video conferencing facilities, a collaboration center containing leading edge visualization technologies, 2 well-equipped public conference rooms, and a coffee shop. Seating capacity of the entire library is 633.
There are 65.5 FTE staff, including one FTE Global Public Health Librarian. The Global Public Health Librarian serves as a dedicated liaison between the Health Sciences Library and the Gillings School of Global Public Health, offering student and faculty research consultations and teaching seminars for Research Assistants and students. The librarian also teaches a semester long course on Emerging Technologies for Global Public Health. The Global Public Health Librarian offers guidance in using a host of interdisciplinary database trainings, assists with the teaching of evidence based public health and information literacy, and holds weekly Librarian Office Hours in the school. The Global Public Health Librarian proactively seeks opportunities to help students and faculty improve the quality of their scholarship through a variety of innovative services.
The HSL is ranked among the top academic health sciences libraries in the nation, and it is one of the largest of its type in the US. It is well known for providing unique access to electronic services to special clientele including public health practitioners and off campus students, and for its digital library development. Librarians offer a variety of additional services including customized literature searches and electronic applications development. The library supports internship opportunities for advanced health information professional training. In addition to providing users with an array of informational, instructional, and research resources, the libraries offer a wide range of campus-wide reference and referral services, most of which are available remotely via the Internet or campus computer networks.