The University Library consists of the Queen Elizabeth II Library, the Health Sciences Library, and the Dr. C.R. Barrett Library, Fisheries and Marine Institute, all in St. John's, and the Ferriss Hodgett Library in Corner Brook. These four units together have a collection equivalent to 2.5 million volumes and more than 26,000 current journal subscriptions. This collection serves as the major information resource for the University as well as the province. All units of the library system may be used by all students, faculty and staff, as well as the community at large.
The Queen Elizabeth II Library was opened for service in January 1982. It is an impressive structure of 200,000 square feet on five levels. It has a seating capacity of 2,000 and can hold 1.6 million physical volumes. The Information Services Division, located on the main floor (second level), provides assistance to people wishing to make use of the library's resources and services. This division provides reference and computer-assisted bibliographic search services. Library tours and individual or group instruction in the use of the library and its resources may be arranged for students through this division. Information Services is part of the Commons, located on the Library's main floor. The Commons is a partnership between Computing and Communications, the Queen Elizabeth II Library, and the Writing Centre. The Commons provides access to print, electronic, and technology resources with the support and expertise needed to help users in the use of these resources. The wall space in the Commons is called First Space and is used to highlight the work of the fine arts students of Memorial University of Newfoundland. The Government Documents Section contains a depository collection of Canadian government documents together with an extensive collection of material from the United States and other countries and international organizations. The Lending Services Division provides interlibrary loan and services to off-campus students as well as maintaining the stacks in the library. The Library's Centre for Newfoundland Studies collects all published material pertaining to Newfoundland and Labrador, as well as manuscript materials. The Music Resource Centre, located in the School of Music, contains scores, records, and listening equipment.
The Health Sciences Library is located on the ground floor of the Health Sciences Centre on the north campus of the University. It is a designated Canadian MEDLINE Centre which provides access to computer-assisted searches of the world's biomedical literature on demand in support of clinical, teaching, and research interests.
The Health Sciences Library has a collection of over 40,000 books on medicine, nursing, dentistry, pharmacy and allied health subjects and subscribes to more than 1700 paper and electronic journals. It maintains an audio-visual collection of over 1500 titles, which includes videotapes, slides, microfiche/film and audio cassettes.
The Dr. C.R. Barrett Library is located on the main floor of the Fisheries and Marine Institute. It offers a comprehensive range of library and audio-visual services to students, faculty, and staff at the Fisheries and Marine Institute, the College of North Atlantic Engineering Technology Centre and to the Newfoundland and Labrador marine industries.
The library collection supports study and research in fisheries and aquaculture, marine engineering, nautical science, and the aquatic environment. The collection also includes significant holdings in engineering.
Library holdings include 50,000 books and technical reports, 400 current magazine and newspaper subscriptions, print and electronic reference sources, 1,400 films and videos, maps and pamphlets. The collection includes 4,500 ship drawings.
The Ferriss Hodgett Library is located on levels 2 and 3 of the Library & Computing Building, with seating for 203 users and includes group study rooms, audio-visual and computer carrels.
The Library holds over 100,000 books and 450 current subscriptions, along with collections of audio-visual materials, government documents, microforms, periodicals, and access to many e-journals.
A full range of public services is available including reference assistance, orientation tours and interlibrary loans, as well as access to electronic information resources, Internet, spreadsheet, word processing, and presentation software.