About the Library

Located in the heart of the campus and serving the informational and recreational reading needs of the Phillips Academy community, the Oliver Wendell Holmes library was built in 1929 and thoroughly renovated in 1987. During academic terms the facilities, resources, services and staff of the OWHL are available to students more than 85 hours a week. The library offers students an in-house collection of more than 120,000 fiction and non-fiction books, as well as access to more than three million items in all media through the NOBLE library consortium. A collection of 140 periodical titles is focused on academic and personal reading, and is supplemented by electronic access to tens of thousands of full-text electronic journals to support research. More than 75 electronic reference products provide access to archival resources such as full text newspapers dating back to the eighteenth century. The collection also includes electronic books, downloadable audio books, and DVDs in support of curricular and recreational interests.

The OWHL is equipped with wireless network access, and many students bring their own laptop computers. In addition, public computers are available throughout the building for accessing the library’s web-based online catalog, licensed electronic resources, and the Internet. The catalog includes the holdings of the “satellite libraries” located at CAMD, The Brace Center for Gender Studies, the Peabody Museum of Archaeology, the Addison Gallery of American Art, and the Clift Music Library.

The heart of the OWHL is the Garver Room, which houses the most comprehensive secondary school reference collection in the country. A variety of study venues throughout the building assure that that students can find study spaces which meet the requirements of their tasks and their personal preferences for individual or group study. Students can seek help from professional librarians at three help desks, and from Academic Support staff at the Academic Support Center on the second floor.