The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library owns the largest public university collection in the world and the third-largest academic collection in North America after Harvard and Yale. The collection has more than 10 million volumes and 23 million items housed in more than 40 departmental libraries.

The Undergraduate Library, with over 200,000 volumes, provides more resources in one location than any other undergraduate library in the United States. The Undergraduate Library is nationally renowned for its array of award-winning programs designed to teach students to become sophisticated users of the latest information technologies.

The Ricker Library of Architecture and Art collection contains more than 120,000 volumes and is one of the premier architectural libraries in the nation. The collection includes landmark titles on the history and theory of design, historic preservation, professional practice and management, and architectural structures as well as monographs on architects and building types. It was established by Illinois alumnus Nathan Clifford Ricker, the first graduate of an American architecture program, and named in his honor in 1917. The Rare Book and Special Collections Library holds 16th century editions of Palladio’s treatises and first editions of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Wasmuth Portfolio.

The campus’s outstanding library collections provide students and faculty with an invaluable source for scholarly research and creative inspiration.