All Oberlin College students, faculty and staff may come into the science library and access the collection - books, current periodicals, bound journals, DVDs, and textbooks on reserve. Students, please make an appointment at the science library reservation page. Faculty and staff can enter the library by swiping or tapping your OCID at the library entrance, anytime between 9am-5pm, Mon-Fri. All borrowers with a library card or OCID may request items through OBIS (see how); we will get the item from the shelves and have it ready for contactless pick up. Off-campus borrowers, please contact slibrary@oberlin.edu and we will arrange to get items to you.
Find books, e-books, videos, scores, and recordings at Oberlin by title, author, subject, keyword, or other options.
Can't find a book at Oberlin? Find and request materials held at 120 OhioLINK libraries. Requested items are delivered to the circulation desk on the first floor of Mudd Center, typically within 3-5 business days. The OhioLINK catalog describes over 46 million items, including books, periodicals, maps, music scores and audiovisual materials.
Can't find what you need? For books, try OhioLINK. For books not available through OhioLINK and for other types of materials, use Interlibrary Loan (ILL). ILL lets you borrow materials from non-OhioLINK libraries, including print books, scanned journal articles, musical scores, videos, theses/dissertations, and more.
Contact ill@oberlin.edu with questions.
There are two major call number systems used in the libraries: the Dewey Decimal and Library of Congress classification schemes. The first line of a call number, as it appears on a physical item, is a broad subject classification. The subsequent lines are combinations of letters and numbers that organize items into narrower, related categories.
| Library of Congress | Dewey Decimal |
| RA Alphabetically 564.85 Whole number, followed by decimals |
616.8 Whole number, followed by decimal |
| V65 Alphabetically, then decimals (may be followed by another letter) |
.As78 Alphabetically, then decimals |
| 2012 Publication Date, shelves chronologically | e.g., 616.8 As78 shelves before 616.8 As8 |
See How to Read Call Numbers from the University of Berkeley Library for more details about LC call numbers.
Charting the Next Pandemic by 
Women's Health Movements by In addition to the print books in the science library, there are thousands of e-books accessible through in OBIS. Just click on the ebooks tab to limit your search to books accessible online, in electronic or digital format.
