5 Frequently Asked Library Questions #5

#5. Where are the books?

This is my favorite question because it seems so obvious. Actually, it demands a pretty long answer.

The long and the short of it is that the books are everywhere. The libraries connected to Johns Hopkins University are many. Aren’t you lucky! Here are just a few of the libraries where books are located:

Milton S. Eisenhower Library (MSEL): My favorite of them all (of course, I’m not biased). Eisenhower functions as the main library for JHU’s Homewood campus. As of October 2007, MSEL holds over 2.8 million volumes; subscribes to over 55,000 journals; houses over 216,000 maps; and owns more than 9,700 videos and DVDs.

Libraries Services Center (LSC): The Johns Hopkins Libraries’ off-campus shelving facility. Since there is just not enough space to hold all of the items we purchase for you to use for your research, the LSC houses over a half-million books and over a half-million pieces of audiovisual material. Remember, items shelved there are requestable.

Welch Medical Library: The library serving the Johns Hopkins Medical Institution. The collection covers health, the practice of medicine and related biomedical and allied health care disciplines, nursing, research literature, methodological literature, reviews or state-of-the-art reports, and in-depth, authoritative analysis of areas influencing biomedicine and health care.

R. E. Gibson Library & Information Center: The library serving the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL). APL was organized to help the war effort in 1942, four months after Pearl Harbor. They solve “complex problems that present critical challenges to the nation” and their “sponsor base includes most of the nation’s pivotal government agencies —especially those that protect our security.”

I don’t really know what they do over there. With good reason. It’s classified.

Arthur Friedheim Library: The music library of the Peabody Institute. The Friedheim serves the faculty and students of the Peabody Conservatory of Music, the Peabody Preparatory Division and all other divisions of Johns Hopkins University. The Library is also open to the general public.

SAIS (a.k.a. Mason) Library: Located in Washington, DC, in the heart of Dupont Circle, SAIS Library supports the mission of the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies of the Johns Hopkins University by providing information resources and services to the SAIS community. They have a stellar collection of resources on foreign policy, political science, area studies, international affairs, etc.

And there are even more Johns Hopkins libraries out there. Have questions about the different library collections? Remember, you can always ask a librarian.