Skip to main content

Supporting Experts and Innovators

Our librarians and skilled staff provide invaluable service to the Duke community.

  • They answer more than 115,000 reference questions a year (virtually and in-person) and lead more than 600 presentations and training sessions.
  • They’re accomplished specialists versed not only in their particular academic fields, but also in how best to find, organize, preserve and share the wealth of material available in today’s information-driven society.
  • Our 35 research librarians, with expertise in topics ranging from astrophysics and anthropology to statistics and zoology, provide specialized research support to faculty, staff and students.
  • Our scholarly communications director — a renowned expert on copyright, intellectual property and scholarly publishing — advises faculty, administrators and students about related issues and best practices.
  • And the experts in our conservation lab, one of the best of its kind, work meticulously to extend the life of our holdings and to ensure that knowledge can be passed on to the next generation.

Merle Hoffman

As our collections and services grow to support Duke’s priority research areas, we'll need to recruit and retain talented and innovative librarians, technologists and archivists. Philanthropic investment during the Duke Forward campaign will enable us to attract and to add the experts who will help our students and faculty blaze new paths in research.

  • Your gift of $500,000 can provide endowed support for professional development and travel for research librarians.
  • Your gift of $1.5 million can endow and support the position of university archivist or special collections librarian. 

Ongoing support for crucial positions is essential to the long-term well-being of the Duke University Libraries. Read more about the gift that activist and women’s health care pioneer Merle Hoffman gave to Duke.