Collections

Search millions of print and digital materials including books, journals, periodicals, audio, video, digital collections, and archival primary sources.

General collections

Use these resources to search for books, articles, and more, or find guides to help start your research or assignment. These collections support you throughout the research process.

Research guides by subject

Get started with these database lists curated by librarians to support your subject, topic, or course.

Journals

Search the catalog for journal titles (both digital and physical copies).

Databases

Browse the A-Z list or search the Libraries collection of databases. 

About our collections

Learn more about how we build our collections and who works on collection development.

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Subject libraries and collections

Resources curated by topic or region to support your research. These collections may include unique or rare materials in many formats.

Ames Library of South Asia

The Ames Library collects materials on and from the countries of South Asia, principally in the areas of the arts, humanities and social sciences. Geographic coverage includes Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and more.

Archives and Special Collections

The University of Minnesota Libraries’ Department of Archives and Special Collections (ASC) collects and preserves an amazing array of materials that support research around many topics and subjects.

Architecture and Landscape Architecture Library

The Architecture and Landscape Architecture Library primarily supports the faculty, students, and staff of the College of Design, but it extends to all students and staff at the University of Minnesota, as well as the greater Minnesota community.

Borchert Map Library

The John R. Borchert Map Library contains maps, plat maps, atlases, aerial photography, gazetteers, and more, including digital resources like geospatial data, databases, and tools.

East Asian Library

The East Asian Library holds over 160,000 volumes of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean language materials, serving the instructional and research needs of the East Asian studies program

Government publications

The University of Minnesota Libraries provides access to government information both online and within library collections across campus.  This collection contains United States federal documents as well as publications from state departments, state extension services, and agricultural experiment stations.

Health Sciences Library

The Health Sciences Library collection supports the many schools and centers in the health sciences, including dentistry, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, public health, and veterinary medicine. The library features a Makerspace, a VR Studio, and six 1:Button Studios, among other amenities.

Itasca Biological Station Library

The library at the Itasca Biological Station contains books, maps, and other resources that support the students and researchers studying at the station.

Magrath Library

Magrath Library is the largest library on the St. Paul campus. It has collections about agriculture, food science, life sciences, design, and social work.

Mathematics Library

The Math Library, on the third floor of Vincent Hall, is a quiet study spot with lots of windows, long tables and a variety of study space. It has materials on mathematics, statistics, applied mathematics including a collection of current math journals.

Media collection

The media collection contains video tapes, DVDs, Blu-rays, and some access to streaming video. 

Music Library

The collection is strong in the areas of opera, history of music theory, and 19th- and early 20th-century German periodical literature with smaller collections of non-Western and vernacular forms of music, including folk, jazz, and rock.

Natural Resources Library

The Natural Resources Library has collections on forestry, wildlife, fisheries, zoology, entomology, wildlife management and more.

Walter Library

Walter Library houses resources about physical sciences (e.g., chemistry) and engineering. One of the largest libraries on campus, the central location of this historic building make it a popular choice for students to spend time and study.

Wangensteen Historical Library

The Wangensteen Historical Library of Biology and Medicine collections contain materials and objects that broadly represent health, medicine, and biological sciences from 1430 to 1945.

Wilson Library

Wilson Library, home of collections about the arts, humanities, social sciences, and other topical and regional collections. 

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Course materials

Find materials, including textbooks, organized by your university course.

Libraries course materials in Canvas

To easily access your class's library readings, go to the Libraries Course Materials page in your Canvas course.

Open textbooks

The University Libraries publishes digital textbooks that are licensed to be freely used, adapted, and distributed.

Related services

Course materials services Library staff help instructors find quality course materials that fit their class, set up course reserves, and offer individualized support using our resources and services.

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Digital collections

Explore digitized material from our collections, exhibits, and projects. This includes primary sources such as photos, letters, audio recordings, videos, and more.

UMedia

Browse and search images, manuscripts, maps, video, audio, and more. UMedia provides access to digitized materials from across the University of Minnesota, in particular the University Libraries’ extensive Archives and Special Collections.

Digital Conservancy

The institutional repository of the University of Minnesota, the Digital Conservancy provides free, public access and long-term preservation to work created at the U of M. 

Minnesota Digital Library

The Minnesota Digital Library (MDL) supports discovery and education through access to unique digital collections shared by cultural heritage organizations from across the state of Minnesota. Contributors include libraries, historical societies, museums, and archives.

Online exhibits

A gallery of digitized collections and exhibits from the University of Minnesota Libraries.

Other digital collections, projects, and exhibits

AgEcon Search

AgEcon Search contains full text working papers, conference papers, and journals in agricultural, development, energy, resource and other areas of applied economics from global organizations. 

Umbra Search

Umbra Search makes African American history more broadly accessible by bringing hundreds of thousands of digitized materials from over 1,000 libraries and archives together in one search.

Ojibwe People's Dictionary

A searchable, talking Ojibwe-English dictionary that features the voices of Ojibwe speakers, allowing insight into Ojibwe language and culture.

HathiTrust Digital Library

HathiTrust offers access to a collection of millions of titles digitized from academic and research library collections from around the world, including the University of Minnesota Libraries. Full-text of works that are out of copyright or in the public domain are available for viewing or searching.

Enlightenment Unbound

Enlightenment Unbound provides scholars and the public alike with an interactive portal to explore the many variations of Jean Frederic Bernard and Bernard Picart's Cérémonies et coutumes religieuses de tous les peuples du monde.

Mapping Prejudice

Mapping Prejudice sheds new light on the historic practices of racial covenants, and how they created demographic patterns that remain in place today.

Campus history maps

The history of campus through historical building footprints dating back to 1860, maps dating between the 1880s and the early 2000s, and aerial photographs from the 1940s to the 1980s. The building footprints also link to over 5,000 historical building photographs held in University Archives.

Harmful content in digital repositories

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Reading for fun

Take a break from your research with options for fun reading in our spaces and online.

Popular reading collections

Collections of popular reading are available in Walter Library, Wilson Library, Magrath Library. Get ebooks and audiobooks using the Libby app. 

Kirschner Cookbooks

The Kirschner Collection, in Magrath Library, has cookbooks and recipes from 1890-present. Items in the collection cannot be checked out, but may be photographed, scanned, or photocopied.

Popular newspapers online

Consult our guide to find newspapers, magazines, broadcasts, and other news sources available from the Libraries.

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