University Libraries

By Maureen Schlangen

University Libraries invest more than $1.6 million per year in books, journals, databases and more to ensure that UD faculty, staff and students have access to the best methods and materials available, and the faculty and staff provide instruction and assistance to every department on campus.

“I’m able to function here as a researcher because of the services of the Libraries — the librarians, OhioLINK, interlibrary loan, it goes on and on,” says history professor David Darrow, director of the University Honors Program. “They make sure I have what I need to do my research. Their commitment to serving our research needs is not something you find at every university.”

Darrow makes library instruction a part of almost every course he teaches and encourages all students in the University Honors Program to make the most of the Libraries’ assistance.  

“Libraries give students the greatest chance possible to do quality work,” Darrow says. “I always tell my students their best friend is the reference librarian. … I can’t conceive of assigning any research project without including collaboration and consultation with the library.”

Darrow says library support is part of the reason UD’s top undergraduate students produce publishable scholarship — an unusual achievement for undergraduates.

“Our honors students are contributing to the production of new knowledge,” Darrow says. “Many of the students in the Berry Summer Thesis Institute end up having publications as first author by the time they graduate.”