Collections

Collections & Information Access

Overview

Our collections and licensed content support the teaching curriculum and major research needs of the university community, with a special emphasis on use-inspired, interdisciplinary research that focuses on discovering solutions to global challenges in health, security, and sustainability.  This is in accordance with Northeastern’s mission.

We seek to provide rapid and broad access to information in a variety of formats, and are working to accelerate the transformation from print to primarily digital access to content in order to ensure support for the Northeastern University Global Network as well as for scholars on our Boston campus.

View our collection development policy (PDF, December 2018).

View F.W. Olin Library’s Collection Development Policy.

Recommend a book, e-journal, or other purchase.

About Our Electronic & Print Collections

We offer access to over 80,000 e-journals, over 500,000 e-books, hundreds of licensed databases, and millions of articles, proceedings, documents, images, data, and streaming music and video. Due to our active electronic acquisition process, the most recent materials on a topic are most likely to be found in electronic collections rather than on the shelves.

Snell Library’s collections also include printed books, CDs, DVDs, periodicals and newspapers. The F. Andre Favat Collection provides a current collection of children’s literature and K-12 curriculum resources. The Hub, on the first floor of Snell Library, is a small browsing collection of new books and DVDs, as well as some current issues of periodicals and newspapers.

Scholar OneSearch, our online discovery system, provides searchable access and links to all the items in our print and electronic collections.

Board Games

The Northeastern University Library collects board games for the curricular study of tabletop games and in support of co-curricular and recreational activities. This circulating collection is expanded yearly to include newly released, critically-acclaimed, or award-winning games, as well as those that illustrate the genre’s breadth of format, type, and content. View the Board Games subject guide for a list of circulating games.

If you have any questions about the collection, please contact Regina Pagani (Arts, Humanities, and Experiential Learning Librarian) or Khyle Hannan (Entrepreneurship Librarian).

Northeastern Scholarship, Archives, & Digitized Collections

  • The Digital Repository Service is designed to store and share scholarly, administrative, and archival materials from the Northeastern University community and beyond.  These include over 50,000 digitized university faculty publications, university records, photographs, and historical documents from our special collections.
  • University Archives and Special Collections, housed in Snell Library, encompasses historical records and publications of Northeastern University – its colleges, centers, and administrative units – and preserves the history of Boston-area social movements, neighborhoods, public infrastructure and natural environments.
  • Artists’ Books. The University Archives and Special Collections collects contemporary artists’ books as part of an active teaching collection. Most simply and broadly, artists’ books are works of art in book form. Included works showcase a variety of formats, techniques, and subjects.

Collection Management

Scholar OneSearch, our online discovery system, is powered by Primo and Alma software from Ex Libris. In addition to connecting Northeastern scholars with our holdings and databases, this integrated library management system serves as a platform for selection, acquisition, licensing, circulation, and analytics for the Northeastern University libraries.

A team of subject librarians supports an active liaison program that ensures ongoing communication with Northeastern scholars, and the development of collections that meet Northeastern’s research and teaching needs.

Contact Us

Amy Lewontin, Collection Development Librarian