History of UC Berkeley Library Collections
In 1869, UC Berkeley was the first University Library in the State of California. It held 1,036 volumes to support UC's opening class of forty freshmen. The Library was open 4 p.m. - 5 p.m.
For 2002-03, the Association of Research Libraries ranked the UC Berkeley Library the #1 public research library in North America. Berkeley's holdings at that time included 9.5 million volumes; 81,000 serial titles; 6.5 microform units; nearly 99,000 government documents; 5 million graphic and cartographic items; 82,000 audio/visual items, and over 31,000 films.
The intervening almost-140 years of phenomenal growth and the highest quality acquisitions have been shaped by local individual commitment within the contexts of private gifts and public funds; demands by an ever-growing community of scholars with ever-broader and deeper interests; and unimagined, much-welcome and often very challenging changes in technology.
For more information about the Library and its collections see
