St. Lawrence University - Libraries

Libraries

The Owen D. Young Library (ODY) is a spacious research environment offering a multilevel facility of 96,000 square feet (8,900 m2), characterized by an abundance of natural light and a variety of seating for individual and group study. A six-million-dollar renovation of the library was recently completed; the renovations prepare ODY for the twenty-first century. It includes more than 500,000 volumes, over 370,000 government documents, 1986 periodicals, 550,000 microtext units, recipient of 10,000 to 20,000 reports and documents annually and access to over 70 databases through Internet.

In addition to ODY, which houses the college’s major collections in the social sciences and humanities, the J. Harold and Ruth C. Launders Science Library opened in January 1994. Home of the major science and technology collections at St. Lawrence, the Launders Science Library occupies the upper two floors of Madill Hall, and triples the space available for science resources and services.

The library’s collection of primary scholarly resources may be viewed and used in the Frank and Anne Piskor Special Collections Reading Room, located directly across the atrium from the main entrance of ODY. Each semester the special collections staff offer instruction to classes from a variety of academic departments and programs, including fine arts, French, English, history, environmental studies, economics and the outdoor studies program. In addition, the special collections program includes a book arts collection and a laboratory press. Highlights of St. Lawrence’s special collections include the William Rose Benet Collection of American Poetry, the Milburn Collection of Hawthorniana, the Edwin Arlington Robinson Collection, the Frank P. Piskor Collection on Robert Frost. Other special collections include manuscripts devoted to Frederic Remington, the Adirondacks, the St. Lawrence Seaway and other aspects of northern New York history.