Burns Library is best known for the strengths of our Irish and Irish American collections and those which reflect Boston College's Jesuit, Catholic heritage, including British Catholic authors. We have also been developing collections around major curricular areas, such as nursing, and our local Boston community. Burns Library also houses our university archives.
We hope this overview of our major collecting areas will help you explore and identify sources relevant to your interests. We've included links in each section to relevant searches in our online catalog.
Of course, not everything fits neatly into our main categories. For instance, we hold collections of Japanese woodblock prints from the 18th-20th centuries and "Mass Transit" Washington, DC poets from the 1970s, as well as the papers of urban theorist and activist Jane Jacobs. Explore our online catalog and digitized collections to find materials that interest you.
Please feel free to use our contact form to ask for expert assistance in finding sources pertaining to your research among our more than 225,000 titles and 750 manuscript and archival collections.
If you have books, manuscripts, or other materials that you would like to donate to Burns Library, please refer to the donations section of our website for guidance. Bookseller and others who wish to offer materials for purchase should contact our Burns Librarian
