Center for Research Libraries

This guide will help you locate and access materials from the Center for Research Libraries (CRL), an international consortium of more than 200 research libraries - including Penn State.  CRL acquires and preserves newspapers, journals, archives, and other traditional and digital resources and makes them available to member institutions through interlibrary loan and electronic delivery.

Penn State users can borrow CRL materials for extended loan periods and at no cost. There are no limitations with respect to format or the amount of material borrowed. 

CRL’s deep and diverse physical collection consists of over 6 million volumes of Microform and print publications. Find what's available to you by searching the CRL catalog.  Collection highlights include:

• Largest collection of circulating newspapers in North America (over 16,000 titles from every region of the world and every U.S. State)
• Over 800,00 foreign dissertations (mostly from European institutions, some dating back to the 1800s)
• Government documents from Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the U.S.
• Area studies materials—major microform and paper collections from Africa, Latin America, Eastern Europe, the Middle East,  South Asia, and Southeast Asia

• Rare and specialized journals in science, technology, history, law, and economics including document delivery from the Linda Hall Library—one of the world’s largest science and engineering collections.

Additionally, CRL has over 80 million pages available digitally.  Scans are made on request and through partnerships.

If you don’t find what you need, as a CRL member, you can request purchase of foreign dissertations and other materials.  Purchase requests are initiated through Penn State's Interlibrary Loan office.