The Main Library boasts the largest English-language collection in Egypt and physical and electronic collections in Arabic and other languages. While we continue to support the acquisition of print and other physical formats, the library has made substantial resource commitments in the area of electronic resources. We now provide the AUC community with access to virtually all of the important online scholarly journals in relevant disciplines and e-book collections that grow every year. These resources are made available to AUC users on and off campus from over 130 subscribed databases. Our discovery tool, Library One Search, allows seamless simultaneous searching of almost all of our physical and electronic holdings.
The Learning Commons, located on the plaza level of the library, provides a collaborative, technology-rich environment where library users have the tools and support to access, manage and produce information. The support services of Libraries and Learning Technologies, in collaboration with other campus service providers, maintain the Learning Commons area. Students receive research and technology support from professional reference librarians, trained technicians and student technology assistants. There are computer stations on all floors, with over 250 public access PCs and 90 wireless-enabled laptops available for internal use. There are also dedicated spaces for group work and small classrooms where students can practice presentations with access to the most current hardware and software.
Library services include research instruction and assistance outside the Learning Commons as well. A required one-semester information literacy course instructs AUC freshmen on researching and locating and critically evaluating information using library resources. Additional instruction is offered in all disciplines to undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, staff and eligible external users. Library services also include document delivery of resources obtained from other libraries. The AUC Library is a member of OCLC (Online Computer Library Center) and of the RLG (Research Libraries Group) SHARES program, which along with the use of ILLiad software, enables rapid document delivery from abroad.