Center for Research Libraries: Home

What is the Center for Research Libraries?

The Center for Research Libraries (CRL) is a centralized collection of scholarly research materials in all disciplines. CRL is an international not-for-profit consortium of colleges, universities and libraries that makes available scholarly research resources to users everywhere. CRL is governed by the major research libraries of North America and is funded by fees, grants and contributions. Its outstanding collections include more than 3.5 million volumes of research materials rarely held in North American libraries. CRL offers large collections of foreign dissertations, newspapers, and microfilm sets. Because Loyola Notre Dame Library has membership in CRL, all Loyola and Notre Dame students, faculty, and staff may borrow these collections through Interlibrary Loan.

What kinds of material does CRL collect?

Digital Collections

• Growing collections available online
• Chinese pamphlets from the early revolutionary period
• Slavery and manumission manuscripts of Timbuktu
• Brazilian government documents
• Pamphlets and periodicals of the French Revolution of 1848
• Digital South Asia Library (DSAL)
• TRAIL: Technical Reports Archive and Image Library

Foreign Dissertations

• comprehensive access to doctoral dissertations submitted to institutions outside the United States and Canada
• digitization on request
• demand purchase program for titles requested but not held by CRL
• search foreign dissertations

Foreign Journals

• titles rarely held by North American libraries
• focus on foreign science and technology titles

Foreign Newspapers

• International Newspapers
• the largest circulating collection of foreign newspapers in North America
• 6500+ newspapers from every region of the world
• from the 1700s to the present
• search newspapers database

U.S. Newspapers

• colonial era to the present
• 2000+ ethnic titles
• 2500+ general circulating newspapers
• specialized titles such as the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps)
• newspapers from the New Deal Era
• search newspapers database

Area Studies Projects

• Microform and paper collections from around the globe:
  • Latin America
  • Sub-Saharan Africa
  • Middle East
  • South Asia
  • Southeast Asia
  • Slavic and Eastern Europe
• Types of publications:
  • government reports
  • statistical series
  • special collections
• CRL Topic Guides

Repository Collections

• Major microform sets
• Monographs Pre-1951
• U.S. State documents
• Pre-1996 foreign official gazettes
• International bank publications
• College and university catalogs
• Southeast Asian and South Asian microfiche monographs and serials
• U.S. primary and secondary textbooks
• Miscellaneous collections, e.g., Nuremberg records, railroad reports

How can I search for CRL Materials?

CRL materials are accessible through the main search on the library website and the CRL Catalog. You can also browse the CRL topic guides to find out more about resources available to you. Explore a growing collection of online digital collections, including pamphlets from the French Revolution, materials from South Asia, and government documents from Brazil. 

How can I request materials from CRL?

Some resources from CRL are available immediately. The full text of these items can be accessed through the library website, indicated with the "Find It" button. Items that are not yet digitized can be requested through interlibrary loan. These items are referenced on the library website but will be shown with a "Request Through Interlibrary Loan" link. 

If you have any questions about accessing materials from CRL, please contact your library liaison or chat with a librarian 24/7! 

All images courtesy Center for Research Libraries.