Welcome to the University of Oregon Libraries!

On behalf of our entire library team, I extend a warm welcome to our new, returning and prospective students, faculty members, staff, neighbors, partners, and friends!

You’ve come to a special place at the heart of the work of the University of Oregon, and at an incredible time. As the only member of the Association of Research Libraries in the State of Oregon, we are an essential knowledge resource to the Pacific Northwest region and beyond. Our work not only advances the research and educational enterprises of the UO, but enables new avenues of inquiry to scholars the world over.

We are home to incredible distinctive collections and the historical records of our community held by Special Collections and University Archives— from original Oregon Trail diaries, including that of suffragette Abigail Scott Duniway, to the records of Oregon’s Rajneeshpuram commune, to the papers of great Northwest cultural and literary contributors like Ken Kesey and Ursula K. Leguin; to the archives and records of an independent filmmaking tradition with roots in the Northwest, including the records of Gus van Sant and James Ivory; to folios and early printed works of Isaac Newton and William Shakespeare. Our archives tell the story of the UO’s contributions to world track and field, and preserve correspondence that sheds insight into the founding of Nike by UO alumnus Phil Knight.

We build and maintain Scholars’ Bank, which makes the research papers of UO scholars openly available to the world, and Historic Oregon Newspapers which offers over 1.4 million pages of current and historic Oregon newspapers freely online, attracting nearly 2 million page views during the 2020 academic year.

We create extraordinary educational experiences for our students every day. After a year and a half of pandemic impacts, we welcomed our largest-ever freshman class to campus this Fall. We offered our returning visitors renovated facilities, upgraded lab equipment, and expanded consulting offerings in areas like statistics and data management. In the Price Science Commons and Research Library, our innovative Visualization Lab and DeArmond Makerspace have received equipment upgrades that provide new computational power and learning possibilities to users, and rank among the best facilities of this kind in the State.

With a total of seven physical locations—five on the Eugene campus, plus two additional branches at UO Portland and the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology in Charleston, Oregon—and a robust digital presence accessible from anywhere online, the Libraries provide access to study spaces, labs, equipment, rotating exhibits, and both on-site and remote consulting and educational services for our entire UO community. Course instructors are invited to avail our instruction services to bring our information specialists and collections right into the classroom, creating innovative and bespoke learning experiences for students that are guided by experts in information pedagogy and tailored to course outcomes.

We are your Library—committed to creating an ever more welcoming, inclusive, and accessible environment for every member of our diverse community of thinkers, builders, adventurers and change agents. Whether you are a first-year undergraduate or a faculty member carrying out sponsored research, our innovative services, distinctive collections, and educational programs will not only help you achieve your scholarly and personal goals but inspire you to set new ones.

In the face of new challenges to the work of higher learning and knowledge creation, our dedicated and talented library professionals strive continuously to create novel solutions. We are reducing out-of-pocket textbook costs for students, developing new avenues for research data management, helping our UO authors understand and negotiate their publication rights, and partnering with faculty across disciplines to provide the tools and expertise needed for innovative inquiry in digital scholarship.

Looking to the future, we are partnering with library consortia and knowledge organizations across the nation and the world to steer the development of scholarly communications, promote transparency and openness in research, further build out our digital infrastructure and increase public access to knowledge, and strengthen the credibility and resilience of our shared global knowledge record.

We want to hear from you! Share your ideas about how we can build stronger partnerships in teaching, research, and knowledge stewardship by writing to us at libadmin@uoregon.edu or by contacting your designated subject specialist librarian.

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Ever forward,
‍Dr. Alicia Salaz
Vice Provost and University Librarian, University of Oregon