The major focus of our collection is Unitarian Universalism and American liberal religious traditions. We are best able to answer reference questions relating to these areas.

If you are not affiliated with Meadville Lombard, we suggest you contact your local public, college, or university library first. All requests for borrowing or photocopying printed material from our collection must be made from your local library through its interlibrary loan service.

Primary resources in the Manuscripts and Archives collections are available for use only after a consultation with a librarian. Archival collections are most often for use on-site only.

You can search Meadville Lombard's collection using our on-line catalog. In addition to ML's own outstanding collection of resources in liberal religion, Meadville Lombard residential students have access to the library of the University of Chicago and borrowing privileges at libraries of the other ACTS schools.

Most library materials are housed in the library stacks (see arrangement scheme below) in the Main Building, which is located at 5701 South Woodlawn Avenue.

Access to archival/manuscript collections and religious education can be arranged by contacting a librarian.

Stacks Arrangement

*non-circulating items to be used in reading room

The majority of the books in the library are classified using the Library of Congress (LC) classification system.

Pamphlets are arranged using a Cutter classification system (based on the author's name). The pamphlet file has a separate card catalog adjacent to the main collection catalog.

Several manuscript collections have indexes that are available for use in the librarian's office. Please ask a librarian for assistance with the archival collections.