Library Locations

For in-person visits, see Borrowing and Access Privileges: Onsite Access. SI staff, see Branches and Reading Rooms.

American Art Museum-National Portrait Gallery Librar

American Art and Portrait Gallery Library

The AA/PG Library is the leading destination for study in American art and portraiture, and includes strong holdings in American and European art, American history and biography, and American crafts.

Anacostia Community Museum Library

The Anacostia Community Museum Library was created in 1991 to support the research, exhibitions, and public programs of the Smithsonian’s first neighborhood museum, as well as the research needs of the Smithsonian and researchers at large.

Botany and Horticulture Library

The Botany and Horticulture Branch Library provides research support for the Department of Botany, NMNH and Smithsonian Gardens, plus a large number of botanists world-wide, who use the collections and resources.

Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Library

The major resource in the United States for books, trade catalogs, serials, pictures, and archival material covering design and decorative art from the Renaissance to the present.

Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology

The Dibner Library is the Smithsonian’s collection of rare books and manuscripts relating to the history of science and technology. Located in the American History Museum in Washington, DC.

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Library

A research collection devoted to modern and contemporary painting, sculpture, drawings, prints, photography, video, film and emerging art forms.

John Wesley Powell Library of Anthropology

The Library collection reflects the important role that the Smithsonian Institution played in the development of anthropology as a formal discipline in the United States

Joseph F. Cullman 3rd Library of Natural History

The Cullman Library holds the Smithsonian's collection of rare books in anthropology and the natural sciences and contains approximately 20,000 volumes published before 1840.

Museum Support Center Library

Serving the research needs of staff at the Smithsonian's Museum Support Center for the purposes of collections storage, research, and conservation.

National Air and Space Museum Library

A premier aviation and aerospace history collection, the library supports research by the Museum’s curatorial staff and aviation researchers around the world

National Museum of African American History & Culture Library

The Library supports the mission of the museum, and the research and documentation of all aspects of the African American experience.

National Museum of American History Library

A premier American history collection covering all areas of American history and culture, including social, economic, technological and scientific developments.

Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Library

National Museum of Asian Art Library

With more than one hundred thousand volumes, the National Museum of Asian Art Library is one of the finest repositories of Asian art resources in the United States.

National Museum of Natural History Library

The National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) Library consists of the main location (in NMNH's East Court) and 11 specialized collections throughout the NMNH building.

Crop of a zoom-in of a 10-cent postage stamp honoring Booker T Washington

National Postal Museum Library

Contains more than 40,000 books, journals, catalogs, and documents, and is among the world's largest postal history and philatelic research facilities.

National Zoological Park Library

Opened in 1898, the National Zoological Park library is one of the oldest in continuing existence at the Smithsonian.

Smithsonian Environmental Research Center Library

Provides support for the Smithsonian scientists studying ecological systems and processes and SERC's education staff and programs.

A view down an aisle of twelve-foot high library shelving full of colorful bound volumes.

Smithsonian Libraries Research Annex

The Smithsonian Libraries Research Annex (SLRA) holds over 50,000 monographs, over 300,000 periodical holdings, and is the most subject-diverse branch within the Smithsonian Libraries system.

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute Library

Supporting the research, publications, academic and public programs, and exhibits of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, as well as biological research in Panamá and across Central America.

Vine Deloria, Jr. Library, National Museum of the American Indian

The Deloria Library supports the National Museum of the American Indian Museum, the Cultural Resources Center, and the George G. Heye Center in New York City.

Warren M. Robbins Library, National Museum of African Art

The major resource center in the United States for the research and study of the visual arts of Africa with more than 50,000 volumes.