Closed Libraries

Today, the Berkeley campus constitutes 18 libraries reporting to the University Librarian and 7 affiliated libraries.* Over the past 20 years, 12 campus libraries or archives including the three slated for closure in the long-term space plan have been (or will be soon) permanently closed and/or consolidated with others. Of those constituting the University Library, 7 will be designated as "satellites"—without circulation or reference services—putting them in peril during future anticipated funding reductions. The impact on departments and academic programs that have lost these libraries and expert staff is immense and will forever alter the character of the campus.

The Northern Regional Library Facility (NRLF) is a cooperative library storage facility owned and operated by the University of California and is located on the grounds of UC Berkeley's Richmond Field Station. 

*Affiliated Libraries are physically and administratively separate from The University Library, and have been reduced to seven (indicated by an asterisk in the lists below).

On February 23, 2023, UC Berkeley finalized a “long-term space plan” for the Library which will result in the closure of three more campus libraries (Anthropology, Math, and Physics/Astronomy). 

CLOSED OR CONSOLIDATED LIBRARIES

"The library is a really valuable space. It’s not only a space for simply going in and accessing a book. It’s also a space of encounter. The kind of thing that the University is trying to destroy is essentially this possibility for having a happenstance run-in with a book that you may not necessarily have intended to type into the catalog system or with a person who you may not otherwise run into."


- Jesús Gutierrez, PhD student in Anthropology

Map of UCB Libraries (2022)

The South/Southeast Asia Library which has material in more than 30 languages, spanning 19 countries that represent 30 percent of the world’s population was nearly closed in 2021 in an effort to create more office space for staff being relocated from Moffitt Library. (Photo: Savita Patel/The Quint)

OPEN LIBRARIES (FOR NOW)