The University Library System is the 26th-largest academic research library in all of North America and the 16th-largest among the prestigious public libraries of the Association of American Universities. It provides a large array of innovative, world-class services.

The University Library System (ULS) of the University of Pittsburgh is represented by 13 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.

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 2001, the University's collections totaled more than 4.4 million volumes and more than 35,000 periodical subscriptions. Of this total, the ULS has approximately 3.3 million volumes. Our collection of electronic resources is growing rapidly and now includes thousands of databases, over 5,500 electronic journal titles, and over 145,000 electronic books.

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 Health Sciences Library System serves the information needs of the Schools of the Health Sciences and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. The Health Sciences Library System (HSLS) at the University of Pittsburgh offers a wide array of information services, educational opportunities, and resources in print and electronic format to faculty, medical staff, students, and researchers in the schools of the health sciences (Medicine, Dental Medicine, Pharmacy, Nursing, Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, and Public Health) and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC).

Barco law library primarily used by students and faculty at the School of Law, the Barco Law Library is also available for use by anyone needing to do legal research. About 36,000 square feet of the library was recently modernized during a $1.5 million makeover.

The Barco Law Library is available for use by anyone needing to use its resources for legal research purposes. Likewise, our Government Document collection is available for use by the public at large. Persons not participating in legal research or using the Government Document collection will not be permitted to remain in the library. This includes students studying non-legal material. This policy is strictly enforced because of our location across the street from the Towers dormitories and the ABA minimum seating requirements for law school accreditation. Roughly two-thirds of our seating (all carrels on the 3rd and 5th floors) is assigned to upper class law students. The library also does not permit any type of instruction by non-University of Pittsburgh instructors on its premises. Instructors of graduate courses at the University may hold a class in the library under certain conditions with permission.