Best academic libraries in US/Canada

College Search & Selection
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<p>Largest, by overall volume: (objective, from statistics)</p>

<p>Harvard
Yale
Illinois
Toronto
Berkeley
Columbia
UT-Austin
UCLA
Michigan
Stanford</p>

<p>"Best": (subjective, combination of size + collection significance)</p>

<p>Yale (notably Beinecke)
Harvard (Houghton)
UT-Austin (Ransom)
Berkeley
Illinois
Michigan
Stanford
Indiana (Lilly)
Princeton
???<br>
UCLA
Emory has some strong special collections, others?</p>

<p>opinions? Certain libraries choose to specialize in certain areas to a large extent. It's difficult to really do a "best" ranking since some very large libraries don't have particularly strong special collections and some smaller libraries have astounding special collections. For the most part, the largest libraries do have the best overall collections. I think Harvard, Yale, and UT-Austin have the best combination of both size and significance with their Beinecke, Houghton, and Ransom collections. This list recognizes them mostly for the strength of their humanities/archival collections in addition to overall collection size.</p>

<p>The Library of Congress is the obvious giant in the country, but these university libraries have some of the most significant collections in the world.</p>

<p>Beinecke Library at Yale University — In New Haven, Conn., the centuries-old Beinecke contains 600,000 rare volumes and several million manuscripts in a Yale library system of 10.3 million volumes. (<a href="http://www.library.yale.edu/beinecke%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.library.yale.edu/beinecke&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p>

<p>Houghton Library at Harvard University — 500,000 rare books, 10 million manuscripts and 4,000 feet of ephemera reside in a Harvard Library system of 14.2 million volumes, located in Cambridge, Mass. (hcl.harvard.edu/houghton)</p>

<p>Ransom Center at the University of Texas — Separate from the 8-million-volume, 17-site UT Library System, the Ransom owns 40 million items, including 30 million manuscripts, 1 million rare books, 5 million photographs and 100,000 works of art. (<a href="http://www.hrc.utexas.edu%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.hrc.utexas.edu&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p>

<p><a href="http://www.statesman.com/specialreports/content/specialreports/ransom/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.statesman.com/specialreports/content/specialreports/ransom/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>I've used the Berkeley collection, the Bancroft Library, seeking primary sources connected to California history. It is a thrill to read and hold them even if with gloves and under scrutiny.</p>