About Burke Library

Overview

The Daniel Burke Library is the main library at Hamilton College. The other libraries on campus are the Music Library and the Jazz Archive in McEwen Hall, and the Media Library in Christian A. Johnson Hall. The combined libraries house more than 600,000 volumes and receive 3,745 periodicals. The library network includes the online catalog (ALEX), 175 research databases, electronic reserves and many other Internet resources.

Please visit the Burke Library Photo Gallery.

History

Construction of the Daniel Burke Library was completed in 1972. Named for a member of the Class of 1893 who was for many years chairman of the board of trustees, this facility provides Hamilton with one of the finest small college libraries in the nation. The library is also home to the Multimedia Presentation Center, a state-of-the-art computer and media facility, which opened in 2002.

The Collections

The Daniel Burke Library is particularly strong in the areas of history, the social sciences and the humanities. In addition to books, the library subscribes to approximately 2,000 periodicals, more than 24,000 electronic journals and some 430,000 pieces of microfiche and microfilm. Additional materials for research purposes are available through interlibrary loan and document delivery from various online systems.

Among Burke Library's special collections are the Rare Book Collection, the Ezra Pound Collection, the Beinecke Lesser Antilles Collection, the Communal Societies Collection and the Alumni Collection of books and other materials written by and about Hamilton graduates. In addition, an area of the first floor of the library contains easy-chairs and a collection of books selected for leisure reading. Seminar rooms for small classes are located in the library.

Links to Collections in Burke Library

• ALEX (the Library catalog)
• Rare Books & Special Collections
• College Archives

(Reviewed: May 24, 2006)