With more than 3.5 million volumes, extensive digital resources, and world-renowned collections of rare and unique materials, the River Campus Libraries forms the intellectual foundation of learning and research at the University of Rochester. The iconic Rush Rhees Library, located at the heart of the campus, is home to the Art and Music Library; the Digital Scholarship Lab; the Department of Rare Books, Special Collections & Preservation; the Gleason Library, a flexible, collaborative study space; the Rossell Hope Robbins Library for medieval studies; and the University Archives. The Carlson Science and Engineering Library, located in the Computer Studies building, houses the VISTA Collaboratory, a state-of-the-art data visualization lab. The Physics-Optics-Astronomy Library is located in the Bausch and Lomb building.

A visit to the Memorial Art Gallery is a journey through more than 5,000 years of art history. From the relics of antiquity to works in the vanguard of contemporary movements, the Gallery offers a panorama of the world’s art. The Gallery’s permanent collection of more than 12,000 objects has been called the best balanced in the state outside of metropolitan New York City. In addition to its collection, the Gallery offers a year-round schedule of temporary exhibitions, lectures, concerts, tours, and family activities. The Gallery was founded in 1913 by Emily Sibley Watson as a memorial to her son, architect James Averell. Given in trust to the University of Rochester, it is one of the few university-affiliated art museums in the country that also serve as community art museums. Today it is supported primarily by its members, the University of Rochester, and public funds from Monroe County and the New York State Council on the Arts.

The University Libraries’ digital collections encompass a wide variety of formats, including photographs, print materials, audio recordings, artworks, artifacts and other resources. Our digital collections are created to support the teaching and learning activities of UB faculty and students, enhance scholarship and research, and increase access to rare or fragile items that may be too delicate to be handled regularly by the public.

Today, the Libraries offer distinct collections that cover such diverse subject areas as African American studies, American literature, architecture, biology, medicine, music, psychology and UB history. All of the Libraries’ digital collections provide centralized access to UB’s diverse inventory of legacy and teaching collections for purposes of instruction, scholarship and archival preservation.

At the University at Albany, library resources and philanthropy have been linked since shortly after the founding of the State Normal School at Albany - the University's "ancestor" - in December 1844. Two months after the School opened, its first library opened in one room of a former train depot on State Street and the School received its first private donation, a bequest of $300 to purchase library books.

This website provides a glimpse of the many kinds of unique cultural resources held among the library collections at Union College in Schenectady, New York. Founded in 1795, Union College was the first college chartered by the state’s Board of Regents and is situated in a campus that was the first in the nation to have been designed according to a comprehensive architectural and landscape plan.

A small, residential, independent liberal arts community, Union today remains one of the oldest non-denominational colleges in the country with a rich history that blends respect for tradition with an emphasis on integrating the humanities and social sciences with the natural sciences and engineering in dynamic and innovative ways. Union’s unique cultural resources are housed in the Special Collections and Archives Department of Schaffer Library, in its Permanent Collection, and at the nearby Adirondack Research Library of the Kelly Adirondack Center. Works of enduring value in the collections include archival records related to the College’s history, over 600 manuscript collections in a variety of subject areas, maps, drawings, photographs, other visual material, sound recordings, ephemera, and three-dimensional objects ranging from scientific instruments to works of art from ancient through modern times. Among the library’s book collections are nearly all of the materials purchased to create the first College library in 1795 as well as numerous first editions that span the disciplines; samples of the latter include Isaac Newton’s Principia, James Joyce’s Ulysses, and a complete elephant folio edition of John James Audubon’s Birds of America, which was purchased directly from the artist himself when he visited the Union campus in 1844. Thus many of these primary resources document not only the reach of Union’s programs but the social and cultural history of upstate New York and the involvement of its citizens in the wider world.

Throughout the history of the Ulster County Historical Society (UCHS), the mission has been twofold. The first responsibility is to act as curator and collector of significant Hudson Valley artifacts, documents and cultural items. The donation of the Bevier House as museum space helped the UCHS to achieve this goal. We currently house several fine collections of artwork, furniture and culturally significant documents. The creation of our library within the museum allows for researchers to access documents, land records, maps, town histories, letters and diaries of interest to this area of the Hudson Valley.

Another goal is to educate our community and the public on the very important role the Hudson Valley and particularly Ulster County has played in the formation of our great nation. Through a variety of programs that engage participants and encourage participation, the local history comes alive for visitors and all involved in our programming.

SUNY Ulster, or Ulster County Community College, is a public two-year college supported by Ulster County, New York and the State University of New York. We are rural, located in the Hudson Valley with views of the nearby Shawangunk Mountains, yet also close to cities like Kingston, NY's first capital, the artists' communities of Woodstock and New Paltz, and an easy ride into New York City for a day or night. The Macdonald DeWitt library sits at the center of the Stone Ridge campus, offering an inviting environment for students to work independently or collaboratively.

The library has maintained a local history collection since 1972. The collection emphasizes material relating to Ulster County but also includes the history of neighboring counties, the Hudson Valley, the Catskill Region and selected materials that covers the general history of the state. Materials include books, maps, postcards, a file of pamphlets, articles and newspaper clippings. There are some early census surveys, celebration publications, documents relating to the Ashokan Reservoir, and brochures from Lake Minnewaska and Mohonk Mountain House.

The Tuxedo Park Library strives to meet the informational and recreational needs of the residents of the Town of Tuxedo. It seeks to be the heart of the community. The Library stimulates interest in reading and lifelong learning, and affirms the historical significance of our town by providing open access to cultural, intellectual and educational resources.

The Tuxedo Park Library Local History Room contains books, maps, photographs, scrapbooks and other material pertaining to the history and everyday life of the residents of the Tuxedo/Tuxedo Park community. The Local History Room may be used during Library hours by request and is open to residents and non-residents.

The Goff-Nelson Memorial Library in Tupper Lake was formed in 1914. Their library holdings include about 40,000 items and special collections on Adirondack history.