Our Mission
By connecting individuals to expert information services and responsibly curated, world-class collections, the people of IU Libraries inspire and empower students and faculty to excel in innovative research and creative activity, outstanding teaching and publishing, and deep, reflective learning. Posted January 2022.
Our Vision
IU Libraries will be an in-demand partner and leader in advancing research and creativity, facilitating teaching and learning, and amplifying scholarship by enabling critical thinking and discourse, cultivating an inclusive environment, and providing equitable access to diverse perspectives and resources. Posted August 2022.
Our Core Values
We further the scholarly explorations of all who are curious by ever-expanding access to information and by creating an inclusive, welcoming environment to reach an ever-broadening research community.
Collaborations, consultations, and partnerships that are inclusive and transformational are fundamental to our work with all communities.
We are committed to deep-seated, structural change leading to greater diversity, inclusivity, access, and social justice in our workplace and campus community. Our work in collections, information services, publishing, and preservation amplifies the voices, experiences, and perspectives of those who have been oppressed, terrorized, silenced, or disadvantaged by the dominant culture.
We practice innovation in two primary ways: through technological enhancements and new organizational efficiencies in our resources, tools, and services; and by fostering equity, diversity, inclusivity, and justice in our work and goals as ongoing responses to a continually evolving social environment.
We practice transparency, openness, impartiality, accountability, and respect.
IU Libraries: Destinations for Discovery
Three library fires—in 1854, 1883, and 1969—did not daunt us. Through wars, recessions, and the birth of the internet, we have collected and protected a legacy of knowledge. Our materials are digital, visual, audio, and print. They are curated from our campuses, our country, and our world. As a result, they are in 450 different languages, world-renowned, and ready to connect students with limitless possibilities. Our partnership with University Information Technology Services (UITS) to complete the Media Digitization Preservation Initiative (MDPI) is the country’s most ambitious academic audio, video, and film digitization preservation project to date.
All IU libraries are open to residents of the state as well as to Indiana University faculty and students. We are experts on copyright, preservation, open access publishing, digital collection management, statistics, geographic information systems, textmining, and all the technologies we find worthy of your work. We have been collecting the greatest ideas for 200 years. We are ready to inspire yours.
On the Bloomington campus, the Herman B Wells Library, with its double towers of Indiana limestone, is the visual center of the multi-library system and primarily supports the disciplines of the humanities and social sciences. Especially noteworthy are the collections that support IU’s international and area studies, including interdisciplinary research collections developed in the areas of African Studies, Russian and East European Studies, Uralic and Altaic Studies, East Asian Studies, and West European Studies.
The Wells Library, however, is only one entry point to an entire system. You'll also find branch libraries across campus that support specific academic interests. The William and Gayle Cook Music Library, for example, provides resources and services to support the internationally renowned Jacobs School of Music. The Education Library and the Sciences Library (to name only a few) offer on-site spaces for students and faculty of those schools to study, interact, research, and learn.
A team of specialists select, manage, and build our research collections, which include more than 11,532,115 million cataloged items. The materials support every academic discipline on campus, with an emphasis in the humanities and social sciences. Collections also include journals, maps, films, and sound recordings. Users can access more than 1,871 databases, 60,000 electronic journal titles, and 1.9 million electronic books, as well as locally developed digital content. IU Libraries is prolific in open access publishing and hosts 40 open access journals.
We are proud to be home to Indiana University Press, an academic press serving the world of scholarship and culture as a professional, not-for-profit publisher. Founded in 1950, IU Press is recognized internationally as a leading academic publisher specializing in the humanities and social sciences.
Additional major destinations include:
Lilly Library | 1200 E. Seventh Street
A preeminent rare book and manuscript library known around the world, the Lilly Library is centrally located on the university’s Fine Arts Plaza and offers over 8 million manuscripts, 150,000 pieces of sheet music, 30,000 mechanical puzzles, and 450,000 books.
William and Gayle Cook Music Library | 200 S. Eagleson Avenue
Supporting musical performance, teaching, learning, and research at Indiana University, primarily in the Jacobs School of Music, the Cook Music Library is a world-renowned center of musical excellence.
Wylie House Museum | 307 E. Second Street
Home to Indiana University’s first president, this 1835 structure is one of Bloomington’s oldest homes and open to the public through free guided tours.
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