The mission of the LAU Libraries is to acquire, organize and disseminate information resources that support the academic curriculum and research needs, and, to cater to the intellectual and cultural pursuits of the University community.
LAU’s libraries pride themselves not only on their special features and collections but on having a service-oriented, highly committed staff. Our services are not limited to available holdings, but extend to inter-library loans and document delivery services. Our print collection of about 348,000 volumes and 2474 periodicals are strongly supplemented by subscriptions to various online databases that provide access to millions of records, both retrospective and current.
The first library was established in 1934 with a core collection to answer the academic needs of the first women’s college in the Middle East, the American Junior College for Women. The same institution has evolved into a full-fledged co-educational university with four professional schools. The collection was developed likewise to keep up with modern academic and research demands.
The new facility in Beirut is named after Riyad F. Nassar, LAU’s president from 1982 to 2004. The Riyad Nassar Library started functioning on September 19, 2005.
The Gibran Khalil Gibran Library on the Byblos campus will take shape within the coming few years.