CRL holds an ever-expanding collection that complements our members’ holdings. The core of our collection is built on a history of distinctive international collections, which remain a significant focus and account for over a third of annual collections expenditures. Beyond them, our diversified holdings and partnerships serve members' needs across other disciplines. CRL has distinctive research materials available across a myriad of topics in the humanities, STEM, and social sciences.
Collections Scope
CRL holds over 6 million physical items at our 130,000-square-foot preservation facility in Chicago, and more than 85 million digitized pages on our digital platform.
We provide research materials at a low cost to members and continue to develop collections which include materials and archives from all world regions, in 278 languages, guided by CRL members serving on our Global Collections Committees.
Collection strengths include:
- international newspapers
- historical U.S. and Canadian ethnic newspapers
- government information
- history and agriculture content
- science, technology, and engineering journals
access to the Linda Hall Library—over 500,000 monographs and 48,000 journal titles in science, technology, engineering, and their histories—with no added cost
specialized content, often unique or scarcely held, for 38 of the 50 current NCES CIP areas (Exclusions include, for example, Health & Medical Residency, CIP 60 & 61; High School & Secondary Diplomas, CIP 53; Leisure & Recreation, CIP 36)
Member-driven projects and deposits include:
- historical textbooks
- college catalogs and curriculum guides
- foreign bank reports
- railroad publications (a pre-1930s archival collection)
- the JSTOR Archive
Collection Development
CRL’s annual collections budget averages $1.2–1.5 million, roughly 15–30× the dues of a typical member—showing the practical value of shared collections.
Collection Development Principles:
- We build upon a history of distinctive international collections.
- CRL collections complement our members’ collections.
- CRL collecting efforts evolve to meet member needs.
- We practice sustainable and ethical stewardship.
Ongoing collection development emphases include:
- international dissertations
- purchase on demand: Up to $2,000 annually per patron
- foreign office gazettes and government documents
- rarely held serials and international newspapers
Discovery
- our main catalog: catalog.crl.edu
- our digital platform: digitalcollections.crl.edu
CRL is represented in major discovery systems (OCLC, EBSCO, ProQuest, Ex Libris), and we offer custom records loading to tailor discovery through member catalogs
Access Services
on-demand digital delivery of physical collection items within 24 hours (Monday–Friday), within normal copyright considerations
- request fulfillment via OCLC platforms (Odyssey, ILLiad)
- partnership with Linda Hall Library through RapidILL for scientific materials
- physical delivery available via UPS/USPS
- generous policies of virtually unlimited quantity and loan period
average member institution:
- 1–2 delivery or digitization requests per week
- Peaks of 15–25 requests per month
institutions with larger staff/faculty populations:
- 3–4 delivery or digitization requests per week
- Peaks of 40–80 requests per month
Collections Usage
CRL began as a shared research collection, a place for materials with scholarly value but limited and unpredictable demand. These resources deserve preservation and access, but no single library should bear the full cost for the scholarly community at large. CRL shifts that to the network level, giving every member reliable access at a fractional cost. To make sure this works in theory and practice, we review some key data.
Physical Collections Usage
- We consistently fill 500–600 requests per month for digitization or loan. The volume is steady, but the requesting libraries vary - this is a truly shared collection.
- Average members make 1–2 requests per week (15–25/month at peak)
- Larger members make 3–4 requests per week (60–80/month at peak)
While larger institutions have more usage, the difference is modest. Seeing 2–3× more usage despite having 10× the user base suggests that these resources can have value to universities of any size. When there is a need for specialized resources, whether for faculty research, a PhD dissertation, or an undergraduate senior thesis, CRL provides an answer.
What this tells us : CRL is doing what a collective collection should do. Demand for long-tail materials exists across the membership, but it is scattered and unpredictable. There is no pattern to justify any member maintaining these materials locally. These data also show potential: usage dipped during the pandemic and internal transitions. As we improve discovery and support for reference staff, we expect demand to grow. Improving this will be part of our strategic planning in the year ahead.
Digital Collections Usage (Member and Global)
- CRL has developed into a major provider of open-access digital content, used worldwide.
- digital collection download averages are 35,000–50,000 items per month, about 500,000 items per year.
- That is 50–70× the rate of physical use, with peaks tied to the academic calendar.
- Of that 500,000, 70% comes from non-CRL members across the world.
What this tells us: Members make up only about 1% of global universities, but they generate 20–30% of usage of all our digital materials, open access and member collection. Thus, 70% of digital access, which is coming from non-members, are necessarily using open access materials. That suggests good overall alignment between CRL’s offerings and our members’ research needs, and for the practical impact of using CRL’s record loading services, wherein member libraries load selected MARC records, at their discretion, often selecting to received only records for digital content.
It also affirms CRL role in addressing equity issues in contributing to the open access system with global content, since many users of our materials are outside our member base. That includes institutions in low-resource regions, and as part of our strategic planning, we will continue to ensure improved access to information across the knowledge ecosystem.
Contact Information
Kevin Merriman, Director of Global Collections: kmerriman@crl.edu
Collections Information: https://www.crl.edu/collections