The library now offers limited Scan & Deliver service. However, turnaround time for these services may be significantly delayed, and the fulfillment of Interlibrary Loan scan requests is dependent on our partner libraries. We ask that you prioritize requesting items that are the most urgent for your research. At this time, Borrow Direct and physical interlibrary loan services are suspended until further notice.
The Library Reopening FAQ contains the latest information and is updated regularly.
Access to general collection materials on-campus (Sept. 3, 2020):
Faculty, staff, and students with approved campus access may use the links in Orbis and Quicksearch to request materials for pickup at service desks in Bass Library, Marx Library, Haas Arts Library, and the Divinity Library.
To pick up materials in Sterling Library, use the "Contactless Pickup at Sterling Library Nave" option. The requested materials will be pre-checked-out to your library account, bagged, and arranged by user name on racks in the nave (just inside the main entrance from Cross-Campus.) Contactless pickup is also available at Cushing/Whitney Medical Library.
For those authorized to be in the libraries, most general collections are open for browsing. The following reading rooms in Sterling Library are closed, with different ways to access collection materials:
For questions about collection material in the Classics Library, contact Classics Librarian Colin McCaffrey.
The Sterling Library stacks remain open, but we have discontinued checking out library materials to reserved carrels. We encourage carrel holders to check out to their personal accounts the materials most critical to their research and to take the materials with them when they leave the library. This is an important precaution against the possibility that libraries could be closed again with little notice, making materials left in carrels inaccessible.
Across the library system, special collections reading rooms will be open by appointment only. The "Guide to Using Special Collections at Yale University" has links to request appointments at special collections reading rooms.
All researchers must make a reading room seat reservation online at least 24 hours before they plan to visit. The planned hours for each special collection reading room are:
• Arts Library Special Collections – Mon-Fri, 1:00-4:00 PM
• Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library – Mon-Fri, 9:00 AM-4:30 PM
• Divinity Library Special Collections – Mon-Fri, 10:00 AM-4:00 PM
• Lewis Walpole Library – Mon-Fri, 9:30 AM-4:00 PM
• Manuscripts and Archives – Mon-Fri, 10:00 AM-4:00 PM
• Medical Historical Library – Mon-Fri, 10 AM-Noon & 1:00-4:30 PM
Music Library special collections materials will be available for research use in the Manuscripts and Archives reading room.
Hathi Trust’s Emergency Temporary Access Service (ETAS) provides online access to in-copyright books in the Yale Library collection. Catalog records for ETAS items can be found through Quicksearch and Orbis. If you’re already using the Yale VPN, you can click on the “Log In” link at the top of any Hathi Trust page and select Yale from the drop-down menu (if you access Hathi Trust without using the VPN, you will initially receive a prompt to use Duo Multi-Factor Authentication in order to access the database first).
A short video on the Hathi Trust ETAS can be found here, and a library guide here.
Catalog records for e-books from the Internet Archive can be found through Orbis and Quicksearch. The Internet Archive is currently making books in its collection available to one borrower at a time. To use the Internet Archive, borrowers will need to create an Internet Archive account.
Quicksearch can be used to find books, journal articles, databases licensed by Yale Library, and archival materials that have been digitized from Yale special collections. Here are a few brief videos on using Quicksearch to find library materials: