What's the library like?

The U.Va. Library is the place to be. It's the ideal place for studying in a quiet corner or working on digital media projects. At the same time, the library is one of the best places on Grounds to meet friends for coff ee or watch movies together.

Today, the library comprises 16 facilities across the Grounds. The main floor of Clemons Library is open 24 hours a day. It's as much a place to meet friends as it is to search for books and periodicals, earning it the nickname "Club Clemons." In the Robertson Media Center one floor below, you can view movies, documentaries, and news footage, and create your own digital media with the extensive resources of the Digital Media Lab.

Alderman Library has the traditional stacks of books and a vast reference room. Add to that a café, digital collections, Scholar's Lab, McGregor Reading Room, Electronic Text Center, Geospatial & Statistical Center, and a section devoted to government information resources.

At the Music Library in Old Cabell Hall, musical scores flash across the screens at workstations equipped with electronic keyboards. The library has access to a dozen or more music databases and has numerous collections and recordings for browsing.

You can do some serious studying of astronomy, biology, chemistry, engineering, and other sciences in the Science and Engineering library.

Or you can get lost while exploring the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, which holds 12 million manuscripts, 300,000 rare books, and 4,000 maps. Special Collections also holds the University's 3.6 million archival items, including:

• One of 25 copies of the first printing of the Declaration of Independence
• Thomas Jefferson's architectural drawings
• Manuscripts by Walt Whitman, Stephen Crane, William Faulkner, and many others
• The Jorge Luis Borges Collection, one of the most substantive collections of his writings and rare editions

In his plans for the University, Jefferson placed the library in the Rotunda at the head of the Lawn to establish knowledge as the University's core.