Research Guides: Services & Resources for Students: Access to Collections

Access to Five College Collection

You can borrow materials from Amherst and request delivery from any of the Five Colleges using your Amherst ID card
Materials from the other five colleges (with some exceptions) come directly to the Frost Library circulation desk, usually within 2 to 3 business days.
Please request such material through the Five Colleges library catalog. You will receive an email when the item is ready for pickup. We hold these Items at the Frost Library circulation desk for up to 10 days.
Archives & Special Collections houses Amherst's rare books, literary manuscripts, and materials that document the college and its history.
Our Digital Programs department provides access to a growing set of digitized archival collections. They also support digital preservation, open access, and digital humanities projects.

We welcome requests to purchase items needed for your courses and personal interests. Please submit purchase requests here.

We obtain material from around the world without charge to you. Please submit requests here.
Whenever possible, we deliver journal articles as PDFs via email. We hold other materials as they arrive at the Frost circulation desk: books, dissertations, government documents, microfilms, photocopies of non-circulating items, and musical scores at the Frost Library circulation desk.