Why Join CRL?
CRL empowers over 200 academic and research libraries by providing access to rare and essential resources beyond the capacity of any single institution. Students, faculty, and researchers at voting member institutions enjoy full benefits, with select access for Global Affiliates.
Exclusive Access to Scholarly Resources
CRL houses over five million primary source materials, including:
- North America's largest circulating newspaper collection
- 38,000+ journals and 800,000 international dissertations
- Rare microfilm and paper collections spanning Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, Europe, South Asia, and Southeast Asia
- Expanding digital archives with over 20 million curated pages
- Generous loan periods for convenient borrowing
Research & Teaching Support
- On-Demand Digitization – Request digitization of materials
- Unlimited Document Delivery – Articles from 100,000+ serials & newspapers, plus 50,000+ journals from the Linda Hall Library
- Demand-Based Purchases – Acquire foreign dissertations, newspapers, and archival records
- Enhanced Discoverability – Seamless access via local records and web-scale services
- Individualized Consultations – Custom resource recommendations
Expanding Partnerships & Preservation
- Collaborations – Expanding digital content with key partners
- Preservation Initiatives – Supporting digital and print preservation through data analysis and collective efforts
- Shared Print Program – Ensuring long-term accessibility of critical collections
- Webinars & Forums – Engaging discussions on collection-building and digital investment
Join CRL and access a world of scholarly resources that power groundbreaking research.
Are you interested in becoming a member
or have questions about membership?
Contact our Head of Membership Engagement
Events and Webinars
Webinars about CRL initiatives in digitization, licensing, and shared print efforts are open to library staff and researchers at all member institutions.
Visit CRL
Library staff from CRL member institutions are welcome to make an appointment to visit the CRL collections facility when in the Chicago area.
Demand Purchase Program
To meet scholars’ individual research needs, CRL purchases
materials in the following areas for CRL libraries on request:
Doctoral Dissertations, Newspapers, Archival material
Shared Print
Shared print is a movement in which libraries work together on a coordinated, community-wide effort to preserve print collections through collective action.
Signup for our newsletter
Subscribe to our monthly newsletter to keep up to date on CRL news, reports, and webinar programming.