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Library History and Facts

Oviatt Library

The California State University, Northridge's University Library provides educational, cultural and information services and resources to the students, faculty, and the community. Its primary mission is to support and supplement classroom and independent learning; facilitate student and faculty research; and provide students with lifelong skills in identifying, locating, evaluating and synchronizing information.

All library materials are housed in the University Library, a 234,712 square foot state-of-the-art facility. Of note are 3 computer equipped library instruction labs totaling 100 desktops, 100 desktops in various library locations, and over 120 laptops and tablets available for lending to currently affiliated CSUN Students, Faculty, and Staff. The recently remodeled first floor Learning Commons is a modern, expansive and flexible space that includes an Information Technology help desk and a state-of-the-art Creative Media Studio (renamed Creative Maker Studio July 2022 with expanded services). There are over 2,500 seats for in house study. During the fall and spring semesters, the building is open 85 hours a week. The Library maintains and provides access to electronic information 24 hours a day.

The University Library has a collection containing 2.1 million volumes, of which over 1.5 million are books, and over 250,000 bound periodical volumes. The Library subscribes to 53,000 online journals, over 2,300 print journals, over 200 online databases and more than 570,000 ebooks. The microform collection contains 3.17 million pieces. There are over 13,000 sound recordings, 45,000 film and video recordings and nearly 60,000 pictures and other graphic materials. The archives and manuscript collection exceeds 11,000 linear feet of materials, with nearly 45,000 items housed in Special Collections.

The Library is heavily used with 13 million uses of its web pages annually, a gate count of nearly 1.5 million annually, and over 25,000 reference questions answered per year by librarians.