Welcome from the Dean of Libraries

Dean Keith Webster

Dear Members of the Carnegie Mellon University Community,

It is my great pleasure to welcome new and returning students, faculty and staff to Carnegie Mellon University Libraries, your destination to access a wide range of specialists and services that can advance your research, teaching and learning at the university. Below, you’ll find highlights for the semester, as well as a few reminders about Libraries services and resources that you can access with your CMU ID. You can always find us at our locations online.

Fall 2023 Highlights

  • The White House has declared 2023 the Year of Open Science, featuring actions across the federal government to advance national open science policy. CMU has proudly championed initiatives that support collaborative, transparent, openly accessible and reproducible research across all disciplines at CMU, and we have a number of activities and events planned in this area for the rest of the year.
  • Located on the ground floor of Hunt Library, the Sustainability Studio has become a destination for connection, discussion and collaboration across disciplines – to bring the CMU community together in pursuit of a more equitable future.
  • Our unique and rare collections housed in the University Archives and Special Collections preserve and share the legacy of CMU for generations to come. This year, we present two exhibitions – organized in collaboration with Pittsburgh’s Frick Art Museum – to mark the quatercentenary (1623-2023) of Shakespeare’s First Folio, a copy of which is held in Special Collections.

Service and Resource Reminders

  • The Libraries Catalog contains records for the majority of our physical and digital collections, including more than two million eBooks and over 250,000 online journals. Additional resource types include: books, peer-reviewed articles, journals, music scores, audio CDs, conference proceedings, government documents, film, digital images and more. If you need access to materials that CMU does not own, you may be able to request materials from other institutions using the ILLiad or E-Z Borrow Services.
  • Reserve a spot for quiet or collaborative study in Hunt or Sorrells libraries using our space reservation system.
  • Explore our growing technology collection of devices that are available for you to borrow, including iPads, calculators, charging cables, headphones, portable DVD drives, music foot pedals and more.
  • All CMU faculty, staff and students can access The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette web content through the library.
  • Our public workshops are being offered either in person or virtually this semester. Find sessions on topics like text mining, R, data and citation management, arts entrepreneurship and more. Explore the events calendar to see what else is coming up this fall.
  • Faculty and researchers can publish their work open access free of charge with many publishers thanks to transformative agreements with Elsevier, Cambridge University Press, the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), American Chemical Society (ACS), PLoS and Wiley.
  • Research Information Management Services brings together tools to amplify the impact of CMU research and explore data insights, such as Scholars@CMU, a profile service supported by Elements that allows faculty to curate a scholarly profile and indicate their willingness and availability for media appearances and journalistic or other public engagements.
  • Meet funders’ open access requirements when you deposit your scholarly outputs and research data in KiltHub, the comprehensive institutional repository and research collaboration platform for CMU.

It’s an exciting time at the Libraries. We have much more to offer than what is listed here. Explore the many ways to connect with our helpful staff and faculty, or for more targeted assistance, contact your departmental librarian.

I invite you to stay informed by subscribing to our newsletter and following us on Instagram to learn about new services, events, exhibits and resources.

Wishing you each a successful semester ahead,

Keith Webster
Helen and Henry Posner, Jr. Dean of the University Libraries
Director of Emerging & Integrative Media Initiatives