About the Libraries

librarian and student

Mission

The LSU Libraries supports the academic mission of the university by fostering teaching, learning, and research. Through its commitment to excellence in collections, services, and spaces, the Libraries serves as an indispensable intellectual resource for the state of Louisiana, and indeed to communities worldwide.

About Us

The LSU Libraries includes the LSU Library and the adjacent Hill Memorial Library. Together, the libraries contain more than 4 million volumes and provide additional resources such as expert staff, technology, services, electronic resources, and facilities that advance research, teaching, and learning across every discipline.

LSU Library

The LSU Library is the main library. Centrally located on the quad, it is an active and energetic part of academic life at LSU. Students and faculty find a great variety of academic support and resources for research available through the library. It is the only twenty-four-hour study location on campus, offering resources and services to faculty and students in all departments. Subject specialists are available to students and faculty in person and online for personalized research consultations, copyright support, and help navigating our world-class collections and resources. The library facilities include individual and group study areas, a graduate reading room, a math lab, the Shell Tutorial Center, computers, wireless access, and a coffee shop.  LSU Libraries administers the T. Harry Williams Center for Oral History, a digital scholarship lab, equipment checkouts for students, and interlibrary borrowing services. Hundreds of thousands of books and journals are also available online through the library website, including textbooks for many LSU courses. The Libraries is an essential campus partner for learning, teaching, and research.

Hill Memorial Library

The Special Collections division in Hill Memorial Library, provides access to historical, cultural, and artistic treasures and research materials in fields ranging from the humanities and social sciences to the natural sciences, agriculture, aquaculture, the fine arts, and design. Special Collections includes the Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collections (LLMVC), the Rare Book Collection, and the E.A. McIlhenny Natural History Collection, in addition to more than a dozen smaller specialized collections. The LLMVC contains rare and early imprints pertaining to the exploration and colonization of the region; books on Louisiana subjects and Louisiana authors from all eras; Louisiana newspapers on microfilm; the papers of Louisiana political figures; and more than 5,000 manuscript collections. Special strengths in other collections include natural history, especially ornithology and botany; 18th century British literature and history; and modern fine printing and book arts.  Special Collections has contributed more than 50 collections of primary source materials to the Louisiana Digital Library and more than 200,000 pages of historical Louisiana newspapers to Chronicling America, both of which are freely available to the public.