Campbell University was established as Buies Creek Academy in 1887, but did not have a designated library until 1894. After one year of operation, the new library had 400 volumes. The library had reached 1,500 volumes when destroyed by fire in 1900. In 1925, having grown to 2,500 volumes, a separate library building was constructed - the Carrie Rich Memorial Library. An addition was added in 1956, which brought the building to 9,600 square feet and another in 1967 brought the facility to 28,125 square-feet. By that time, the collection had passed 50,000 volumes. The library became a Federal document's depository in 1965. In 1976 the Campbell University School of Law started its own library. The Law Library was expanded to 28,143 square-feet when Wiggins Hall was completed in 1993.
Also, in 1993 the Curriculum Materials/Media Center of about 1,500 square-feet was brought under library administration and the Kivett Basement was added for storage, giving another 1,200 square-feet. In the summer of 1998 the building that formerly housed the U.S. Post Office was converted into a Library Annex. This added another 3,000 square feet. Finally, in the Fall of 1999 a 2,200 square-foot Business Library was opened in the Lundy-Fetterman School of Business, bringing library space to a grand total of 36,025 square-feet, exclusive of the Law Library.
Today the library collections consist of 213,000 book volumes and 873,000 microforms. The Law Library boasts an additional 106,000 volumes and 74,000 microforms. In addition, the libraries have extensive access to databases containing over 9,500 full-text electronic periodicals. The library system serves a main campus enrollment of around 3,600 students and an additional 3,000 students at remote sites.
The libraries, exclusive of the Law Library, have 8 professional librarians and 10 full-time staff members. Contact information can be found in the Staff Directory. Library hours can be found in this page.