Princeton University Library’s rich and diverse collections reflect and support the University’s mission to “advance learning through scholarship, research, and teaching of unsurpassed quality.” They are central to the Library’s mission of creating and developing resources to advance world-class research through creative partnerships at Princeton and across the global community.
Extensive digital holdings are represented by primary sources such as manuscripts, archives, rare books, and also include ephemera, data, images, electronic materials, maps, music and video. Extensive physical collections include printed works, archival materials, maps, prints, realia, coins and incunabula. Princeton’s collections grow and evolve through careful selection, acquisitions and shaping by subject specialists and curators, gifts to the Library, and collaborative collecting programs with partner research institutions and consortia. Princeton aspires to foster an environment of innovative knowledge creation and diversity within its collections, and prioritizes equity and inclusive accessibility.
The Collections
- General
Our general collections are impressive in their depth and scope and support teaching, learning and research. They are accessible in Princeton’s Firestone, Mendel, Architecture, East Asian, Stokes, and Lewis & Engineering libraries as well as in ReCAP by request. Consult the online for all Princeton’s holdings.
- Special and Distinctive
We invite you to explore Princeton University’s rare books, manuscripts, and archives, and look forward to helping you engage with our holdings, which span over five millennia and include items of global cultural significance. We aspire to be active and creative partners in the interpretation of these documents by providing you with as much access to our materials as possible and by engaging with you to develop innovative forms of pedagogy and research. Our Special and Distinctive collections also include Marquand Library of Art & Archaeology and the East Asian Library.
- Digital
Princeton University Library’s rich set of is available through several specialized portals, all of which complement the and discovery systems. These portals provide online gateways to support teaching, research, and expanded use of the Library’s collections. While Princeton University faculty, researchers, and students are our primary audience, we also seek to increase access to rare and unique resources that would otherwise be visible only to those able to physically visit the Library.
- Electronic
Databases, Ejournals, Ebooks, commercial digital collections, data and GIS files supporting teaching and research at Princeton make up the broad and specialized electronic resources available to Princeton students, faculty and researchers. While on campus, Princeton Alumni and visitors can take advantage of almost all of these resources, however remote use is limited to authorized Princeton users. Consult the online for all Princeton’s electronic holdings, or just for . Princeton Alumni have remote access via logon with TigerNet ID and password to a selected suite of library-licensed electronic resources for personal, non-commercial use. See Alumni services for details.
- Ephemeral
The vast majority of the materials in the digital collections are otherwise unavailable primary resources documenting ongoing processes of social, political, and cultural change during the 20th and 21st centuries. These ephemera provide a wide spectrum of perspectives and positions that enrich and balance official statements and establishment versions of events, as well as the generalizations of journalistic and scholarly accounts. They help ensure that the numerous voices and messages that circulate only outside or in the margins of mainstream communication channels are not permanently lost.
Digitization of these collections turn hidden archives into exceptional, dynamic scholarly resources that support present and future academic activities in interdisciplinary studies and in the broader social sciences and the humanities. It has the potential of enabling a wide variety of research projects in politics and government, anthropology, sociology, policy studies, social history, economics, environmental studies, and many other fields that would otherwise be impossible to conduct. In addition, the symbols, imagery, and language present in the materials provoke many other types of content analysis and inquiry. From a long-term perspective, the intellectual and research value of the collections for historical research is unquestionable.
The high demand of these collections at Princeton and beyond can be expected to increase if the materials are available online. Once online, these collections have the desirable potential of reaching broad audiences across the countries and regions from which they originated, and of supporting scholars and policy makers interested in transnational comparative perspectives that transcend local circumstances.
- Collaborative
Princeton University Library’s rich and diverse collections reflect and support the University’s mission to “advance learning through scholarship, research, and teaching of unsurpassed quality.” They are central to the Library’s mission of creating and developing resources to advance world-class research through creative partnerships at Princeton and across the global community. Princeton participates with partners in the Ivy Plus Libraries Consortium (IPLC) and with ReCAP partners to develop and share these collections through ReCAP and Borrow Direct. Subject and area studies specialists across these partnerships collaborate on collecting areas by geography, subject or other factors, and bring broad and deep collections, with minimal duplication, to researchers, faculty and students to Princeton, across the partnership, and beyond.
For more information:
Collection Development Policies
Princeton’s subject selectors and curators shape the Library’s collections based on the University’s teaching, learning and research needs.
The processes for the acquisition and shaping of the collections are documented in Princeton’s collection development policies which are constantly evolving and based on an ongoing dialogue with faculty and students. The policies explore differences in collecting level, formats, languages and other criteria among collections at Princeton and with collaborative collecting programs with partner institutions.
Gifts
Princeton University Library welcomes gifts of books, manuscripts, and other materials that are deemed to be within the scope of its collection. Gifts are accepted which meet the collecting guidelines established to support the University’s teaching and research or to add core material of scholarly research interest. We are deeply grateful to all of our donors, who for more than two and a half centuries have generously given books and other library materials to Princeton University.
- How to Make a Gift
We ask that prospective donors consult with the appropriate Library staff members before making arrangements to have gifts sent or delivered to Princeton University Library. If you have a special donation situation or questions about the Gifts Policy, please contact Tracie Emanuel, CAS Operations Supervisor.
- Gifts for the general circulating collections should be discussed with the appropriate subject specialists. Please contact Tracie Emanuel for questions about gifts or for a referral to the most appropriate subject specialist.
- Gifts of rare books, manuscripts, maps, paintings, photographs, and other materials should be discussed with librarians in Special Collections.
- Gifts of rare art books and materials should be discussed with librarians in Marquand Library of Art and Archaeology.
- Gift Acceptance
Once accepted, all gifts become the property of Princeton University. The Library reserves the right to determine how donated materials are used, including adding them to the collections, exchanging them, or disposing of them in accordance with Library policy. In general, the Library does not accept or retain materials that duplicate holdings already in the collection or that are in poor physical condition. However, a donated item may be used to replace an existing volume that is damaged or deteriorated.
- Appraisals
Please note that, in accordance with Internal Revenue Service (IRS) regulations, the Library is prohibited from appraising or otherwise estimating the value of any gifted materials. Donors who require a valuation for IRS reporting purposes must obtain an appraisal from a qualified, independent appraiser at their own expense.
- Acknowledgement
Donors will receive an acknowledgement response from the Finance & Acquisitions Department upon receipt of the gift.
- Donation Paperwork and Tax Form
To claim a noncash charitable contribution for tax purposes, donors must submit the required documentation, including a Deed of Gift and IRS Form 8283. Original signed copies are required. All materials—including any official appraisal signatures and supporting documentation—will be forwarded to Princeton Gift Records for review, recording, and any necessary institutional signatures.
Contact Us
General questions regarding collecting at Princeton may be directed to Patricia Gaspari-Bridges, Assistant University Librarian for Collection Development, or David Magier, Associate University Librarian for Collections and Access Services.
Consortial Memberships & Collection Program Partners
- (CRL)
- (IPLC)
- (NERL)
- (ReCAP)
- (SHARES)
- (VALE)
