Founded in 1638, Harvard has a rich legacy of libraries that continues into the 21st century.  In total there are over 70 libraries at Harvard that comprise the Harvard library system, with combined holdings of over 16 million items. More than 11 million of those items are part of the collection of a centrally administered unit within the Faculty of Arts and Sciences that is referred to as the Harvard College Library (HCL). It is comprised of Widener, Lamont, Birkhoff Mathematical, Cabot Science, Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Fine Arts, Fung, Harvard-Yenching, Houghton, Loeb Music, Physics Research, and Tozzer libraries and the Harvard Film Archive, Harvard Map Collection, and the Harvard Theatre Collection.

HCL includes major collections in the sciences, fine arts, music, humanities, film, maps, theatre, government documents, and rare books and manuscripts.  The collection also includes materials in over 100 languages.  We provide library services to the faculty and students of Harvard as well as the world-wide community of scholars and researchers.