George A. Smathers Libraries
The George A. Smathers Libraries of the University of Florida constitute one of the largest university library systems in the United States. The system includes eight of the nine libraries of the University of Florida and provides primary support to all academic programs except those served by the Lawton Chiles Legal Information Center. Previously the Health Science Center Library was also separate, but it was integrated into the Smathers Libraries on July 1, 2009. The current dean is Judith C. Russell. All of the libraries serve all of the university's faculty and students, but each has a special mission to be the primary support of specific colleges and degree programs. As is common in research libraries, library materials are housed in a variety of locations depending upon discipline. The three largest libraries cover an extensive range of disciplines while the smaller libraries focus on three or fewer disciplines.
George A. Smathers Libraries and collections
| Library | Specifications |
| Library West | Is one of the main Libraries in the George A. Smathers Library System. It holds collections in the humanities and social sciences, including resources supporting the Warrington College of Business, African Studies, East Asian Area Studies, and the Isser and Rae Price Library of Judaica. This library completed a $30 million renovation in December 2003 that doubled its capacity, better equipped information technology, and added a Starbucks to the lobby. |
| Smathers Library | Located in the northeastern section of the University of Florida in the middle of the Campus Historic District, Smathers Library is the oldest library on the University of Florida Campus. On the first floor is the . On the second floor is which includes the , the , the , the Baldwin Library of Historical Children’s Literature, , the , the , and the . On the third floor is the Latin American & Caribbean Collections. On the fourth floor is the and the . |
| Marston Science Library | This is the other main library in the George A. Smathers Library System. It was named after former president of the University of Florida, Robert Q. Marston. The library supports agriculture, engineering, mathematics, and the natural and physical sciences. The first floor of the Marston Science Library was renovated in summer of 2014 to become , a study and meeting space with seating for over 700. |
| ' | Provides collections and services for architecture, fine arts, historic preservation, interior design, museum studies, music, landscape architecture, and urban & regional planning. |
| ' | Holds education, child development, higher education, education psychology, counseling, and children's and young adult literature collections. The collection consists of about 80,000 monographic volumes and approximately 600 journal subscriptions. |
| ' | Is an offsite storage facility designed to alleviate space constraints in the University of Florida Libraries. In addition, ALF houses two units from the : the and the . |
| Interim Library Facility | Is an offsite storage facility composed of three units from the : , , and the . |
| ' | The Health Science Center libraries serve the academic, research, and clinical information needs of the six colleges that make up the J. Hillis Miller Health Science Center. The College of Dentistry at UF, the College of Medicine at UF, the College of Nursing at UF, the College of Pharmacy at UF, the College of Public Health & Health Professions at UF and the College of Veterinary Medicine at UF. In addition the Borland Library can be found at Shands Jacksonville which is the Jacksonville branch campus of the Health Science Center, and the Veterinary Medicine Reading Room is located in room V1-110 in the CoVM Medicine Building in Jacksonville, Florida. |
| University of Florida Digital Collections | The University of Florida Digital Collections are a constantly growing collection of digital resources from the University of Florida Libraries' collections as well as partner institutions. All materials are Open Access, and full text searchable. The UF Digital Collections' holdings include books, articles, newspapers, photos, videos, audio, and more. The SobekCM Open Source software powers all of the UF Digital Collections and related digital collections hosted at UF including the collaborative Digital Library of the Caribbean, the , the Baldwin Library Digital Collection, and the Florida Digital Newspaper Library. The UF Digital Collections System also powers record-only collections like NewspaperCat., the collections had 1.5 million digital books, and more than 14 million digital pages available. |
Other UF library collections
Collection strengths
Together the Libraries hold 6 million+ print volumes, 1.5 million digital books, 1,000+ databases, approximately 150,000 print/digital journals, 14 million digital pages. The Libraries also administer the Florida Academic Repository, a centralized shared print storage facility that houses millions of books from the State University System of Florida and the University of Miami.The libraries have built a number of nationally significant research collections primarily in support of graduate research programs. Among them are collections discussed above, i.e., the Latin American Collection, the Isser and Rae Price Library of Judaica, and the Map and Imagery Library. Others include the Baldwin Library of Historical Children's Literature which is among the world's greatest collections of literature for children ; and the P.K. Yonge Library of Florida History, which is the state's preeminent Floridiana collection, holding the largest collection of Spanish colonial documents concerning southeastern United States in North America as well as rich archives of prominent Florida politicians,.
The Libraries also have particularly strong holdings in architectural preservation and 18th century American architecture, late 19th and early 20th century German state documents from 1850–1940, Latin American art and architecture,, national bibliographies, U.S. Census information, especially in electronic format, the rural sociology of Florida and tropical and subtropical agriculture collections, English and American Literature, and U.S. Documents.