Libraries
Dean of the University Libraries: Gale Etschmaier
The University Libraries provide print and electronic collections and a wide range of services to enhance the learning, teaching, research, and service activities of Florida State University. In support of this mission, the libraries' collection is over 4.9 million titles, including access from anywhere in the world to hundreds of databases and more than 219,000 electronic journals. Materials not available online or at the Libraries may be requested through interlibrary loan or through the statewide UBorrow system, offering FSU faculty and students access to millions of books from 39 other state university and college libraries. The Library Express Delivery Service (LEDS) delivers books and articles to faculty, post-docs, graduate, teaching, and research assistants daily. For those researchers unable to visit the libraries, online research services are available seven days a week and library employees offer outreach to residence halls and buildings across campus.
Campus libraries offer many of the same services and resources customized to complement the disciplines they serve. Libraries include: Robert Manning Strozier Library (Main), Paul A. M. Dirac Science Library, Mildred and Claude Pepper Library, the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering Library, and FSU Panama City-Florida Library and Learning Center. The following are designated dean-directed libraries: Warren Allen Music Library, College of Law Legal Research Center, College of Medicine Medical Library, as well as the John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art Library in Sarasota, Florida. International Programs study centers in London, Florence, Valencia, and Republic of Panama also provide library services, resources, and spaces. The entire FSU community can search the University Libraries catalog via its website at https://www.lib.fsu.edu.
The Robert Manning Strozier Library, the University's main library, is located in the center of Tallahassee's campus and occupies seven floors. Strozier Library is open one hundred and thirty-four hours each week during the Fall and Spring semesters, providing around-the-clock research assistance and study spaces. University Libraries had over 1.6 million visitors last fiscal year 2022-23. This visitor count is approaching pre-pandemic levels. Its main floor is an undergraduate-focused Learning Commons, while its lower level is a graduate- and faculty-focused Scholars Commons. Strozier Library offers a robust range of academic support services and programming. Its collection includes a wide variety of research materials, primarily in the humanities and social sciences. The library serves as a regional depository for federal and Florida government documents as well as United Nations documents. In its technology labs, Strozier provides equipment, software, and facilities for listening to, viewing, creating, and editing multimedia materials. Internet-accessible computers with scanners, printers, and photocopiers are available throughout the library. Laptops, cameras, and other equipment are available for checkout. The Assistive Technology Lab provides adaptive equipment and software for students with disabilities. For more information, visit https://www.lib.fsu.edu/visit-and-study/strozier-library.
University Libraries Special Collections and Archives materials are accessed in the Special Collections Research Center on the first floor of the Strozier Library, a nearby Exhibit Room, and in the Mary Lou Norwood Reading Room on Strozier's second floor. Its collections comprise more than half a million items. Manuscript collections include Florida political collections, Southern business history, literary manuscripts, and local and regional Florida history. DigiNole, FSU's digital repository, provides online access to thousands of unique manuscripts, photographs, pamphlets, rare books, historic maps, and other materials from across the FSU campus libraries and beyond. The rare books of Special Collections support a wide variety of disciplines and research interests. The collection includes books from small and private presses, first editions, limited edition works, cuneiform, and other items. Notable book collections include Napoleon and the French Revolution, Shaw Childhood in Poetry, William Morris Kelmscott Press, and Carothers Memorial Rare Bibles. Special Collections and Archives, which includes University Archives, Heritage Protocol, and the Claude Pepper Library, welcomes class visits and provides a hands-on learning environment for students. Heritage Protocol maintains the Norwood Reading Room on the second floor of Strozier Library, where rotating exhibits of FSU memorabilia are displayed. For more information, visit: https://www.lib.fsu.edu/special-collections/visit.
The Claude Pepper Library, housed on-campus in the Pepper Center, was established in 1985 as the official repository for the Pepper Collection, a unique and multi-faceted collection of over a million items by and about U.S. Congressman Claude Pepper (1900-1989) and other prominent Florida political figures, including manuscripts, photographs, audio/video recordings, and memorabilia. For more information, visit https://www.lib.fsu.edu/special-collections/claude-pepper.
The Paul A. M. Dirac Science Library, located on the west side of campus in the heart of the Science Center complex, serves students, faculty, and researchers in STEM fields from its central location. For more information, visit https://www.lib.fsu.edu/visit-and-study/dirac-science-library.
The Warren D. Allen Music Library, one of the Southeast's major music libraries, is located in the College of Music and contains a collection of over 220,000 recordings, scores, books, and periodicals. The library also maintains and provides streaming audio and video resources across a variety of musical genres and digital score resources, as well as extensive online music subscriptions and databases that support the College's curriculum. Housed in 18,000 square feet of space with comfortable furnishings, listening and viewing stations, and a technology-enhanced seminar room, the Music Library provides students with impressive resources and surroundings. For more information, visit https://music.fsu.edu/library.
The College of Law Research Center has a collection of over 300,000 volumes and offers an active program of legal research instruction, an experienced and helpful staff, and extensive collections of law and law-related information. Legal research is facilitated via an array of electronic databases, including the LexisNexis, WESTLAW, and Bloomberg Law legal research databases. For more information, visit https://www.law.fsu.edu/research-center.
The College of Medicine Charlotte Edwards Maguire Medical Library cultivates physicians and physician assistants who are expert learners, problem solvers, and agents of change by providing a supportive environment with access to high quality, relevant, and current information from 21st century information resources. The library houses a collection of books and journals and provides access to a number of electronic medical databases. For more information, visit https://med.fsu.edu/library.
The Florida State University-Panama City Library and Learning Center is located in Panama City, Florida and provides computers, e-books, e-journals, and research help. Students and faculty at this location may borrow materials housed at the Tallahassee campus libraries and may access all of the electronic resources the libraries offer. The 6,000 items in its collection of printed books and journals are available at the library of the neighboring campus of Gulf Coast State College. For more information, visit https://pc.fsu.edu/students/library-and-learning-center.
The FSU Republic of Panama Branch Library offers services and a collection of over 45,000 items to students at the FSU branch campus in Panama City, Republic of Panama. Students and faculty at this location may borrow materials housed at the Tallahassee campus libraries and may access all of the electronic resources the libraries offer by visiting https://www.lib.fsu.edu. The catalog for the FSU Republic of Panama branch collection can be accessed by visiting https://fsupanamabranch.library.site.