About Us: The University Library System (ULS)

The University Library System (ULS) of the University of Pittsburgh is represented by libraries located on the Pittsburgh campus, a Library Resource Facility in the city’s Point Breeze neighborhood housing the Archives Service Center and Digital Research Library, and the libraries of the Greensburg, Johnstown, Titusville, and Bradford campuses.

Our mission is to provide and promote access to information resources necessary for the achievement of the University's leadership objectives in teaching, learning, research, creativity, and community service, and to collaborate in the development of effective information, teaching, and learning systems (see our official Mission Statement). We are committed to excellence in service to our user community (see our Quality Service Commitment Statement).

The University of Pittsburgh libraries and collections provide a wealth of information and services to the faculty, students, staff, administrators, and researchers of the University. In fiscal year 2004, the University's collections totaled more than 4.6 million volumes and more than 45,000 periodical subscriptions. Of this total, the ULS has approximately 3.9 million volumes. Our collection of electronic resources is growing rapidly and now includes thousands of databases, over 25,000 electronic journal titles, and over 170,000 electronic books. See the University of Pittsburgh Fact Book for additional information.

Other University of Pittsburgh libraries include the Barco Law Library and the Health Sciences Library System, both located on the Pittsburgh campus. The ULS shares a single online system with these partner libraries at the University of Pittsburgh, and we collaborate with them to provide facilitated access to all collections and cooperate on other projects to serve the University.

The ULS is a member of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), the Northeast Regional Libraries Consortium (NERL), the Center for Research Libraries (CRL), and the Pennsylvania Academic Library Consortium, Inc. (E-ZBorrow), through which we participate in a state-wide online direct borrowing system.