The Center for Research Libraries (CRL) is an international consortium of university, college, and independent research libraries. Founded in 1949, CRL supports original research and inspired teaching in the humanities, sciences, and social sciences by preserving and making available to scholars a wealth of rare and uncommon primary source materials from all world regions.

CRL's deep and diverse collections are shaped by specialists and experts at the major U.S. and Canadian research universities, who work together to identify and preserve unique and uncommon documentation and evidence, to ensure its long-term integrity and accessibility to researchers worldwide.

CRL is based in Chicago, Illinois, and is governed by a Board of Directors drawn from the library, research and higher education communities.

Our Mission 

The Center for Research Libraries contributes to the preservation and sharing of knowledge by collecting and stewarding the record of human expression in partnership with its members.   

Our Vision 

We envision a world in which the research library community harnesses collective action and the power of the CRL network to cooperatively build, steward, and share accessible and sustainable collections to advance the creation of knowledge.