The Center for Research Libraries

Hope College is now a member of the Center for Research Libraries (CRL), a partnership of more than 240 university, college, and independent research libraries. The consortium acquires and preserves newspapers, journals, documents, archives and other traditional and digital resources for research and teaching. These resources are then made available to member institutions cooperatively, through interlibrary loan and electronic delivery. The Center’s mission is to support advanced research and teaching in the humanities, sciences and social, sciences by ensuring the survival and availability of the knowledge resources vital to these disciplines.

This new membership is a big deal. CRL collections are diverse and highly developed, including:

• 6,500 international newspapers
• 2,500 U.S. newspapers, many dating to the colonial era
• 2,000 U.S. ethnic titles
• More than 38,000 foreign journals that are rarely held in U.S. Libraries
• More than 800,000 foreign dissertations – mostly from European institutions
• Major microform and paper collections from Africa, Latin America, Middle East, Europe, Asia, Southeast Asia, and more

For researchers at member institutions CRL functions as an axillary library of extraordinary resources with user-focused policies including project-length loan privileges and three-day delivery on most interlibrary loans. Faculty also are eligible to participate in a demand purchase program whereby purchases of up to $2,000 annually for foreign dissertations, newspapers, and archival material may be requested.

Access to the CRL collections is available immediately. The library staff will be working on adding links and other access points to the CRL collections. If you are interested in learning more about how CRL may support your research, contact your librarian.