Collections Home Page

About Our Collections

The University of Delaware Library, Museums and Press selects, curates and preserves a balanced and diverse collection that meets the educational, teaching and research needs of the University community.

The development and management of the Library’s collection is highly collaborative. It has been and continues to be developed by subject librarians in collaboration with the faculty, staff, and students of the University of Delaware. Subject librarians select materials, raise awareness of Library resources and interact with scholars within their specific disciplines.

Today, our collections are dynamic and responsive, while recognizing the historical value of maintaining and sometimes developing collections that may reflect outdated mores and prejudicial beliefs. At the same time, our collections are being shaped and enriched in ways that increase access to heritage materials representing varied fields of knowledge, diversity of content and diverse identities and abilities of creators and researchers.

The University of Delaware Library, Museums and Press collects and provides access to material in a variety of formats, languages, and subjects and includes:

  • over 3.5 million print books
  • access to over 1.5 million electronic books
  • over 200,000 print and electronic serials
  • almost 4 million microforms
  • over 35,000 physical media items
  • access to over 1.5 million streaming media items
  • over 400,000 government publications
  • nearly 12,000 linear feet of manuscript material

Discover our collections using DELCAT, our library catalog.