University of Arizona Libraries

What University of Arizona Libraries does

The University of Arizona Libraries is the public state university library system of The University of Arizona, governed by the Arizona Board of Regents and operating as a core academic unit since 1891. It serves University of Arizona students, faculty, staff, and limited public visitors across five physical locations: the Main Library in Tucson, the Albert B. Weaver Science-Engineering Library, two Health Sciences Library sites (Tucson and Phoenix), and Special Collections. The system reports a FY2023 base budget of $37,487,276 covering salaries/benefits, operations, technologies, and information resources, and recorded 1,698,529 building visits in FY2023. The library is also the parent unit of The University of Arizona Press and a members of the SPARC, COAR, DOAJ, and APTrust networks.

The library's core service offering spans physical and digital collections of more than 9 million volumes, the UA Campus Repository (containing theses, dissertations, and faculty research since 1895), interlibrary loan and document delivery, research databases, technology lending, and instruction/liaison services to academic departments. CATalyst Studios provides makerspace and experiential learning facilities (3D printing, scanning, digitization). The library has built out AI-enabled services including AI metadata creation for Atomic Energy Commission records in partnership with TRAIL and JSTOR, AI-driven accessibility enhancements (alt text, PDF remediation), audio/video transcription for Special Collections, collections analytics, and an AI Studio with generative AI training modules for students and faculty. It currently maintains 20+ transformative open access agreements with publishers including PLOS, RSC, ACS, MIT Press, and Cambridge University Press.

The library's revenue model is non-commercial: it is funded primarily through institutional appropriations from the University of Arizona and the Arizona Board of Regents, supplemented by philanthropic gifts (notably a $7M endowment from the Frederick Gardner Cottrell Foundation in 2018) and grants (Mellon Foundation, Ford Foundation). Services are provided free of charge to eligible UA users, with no subscription pricing or external revenue model. The customer base is structurally concentrated on the University of Arizona community, with downstream reach through open access publishing agreements, interlibrary loan, and global digital access to the campus repository.

Name

University of Arizona Libraries

Legal name

The Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of The University of Arizona

Website

https://lib.arizona.edu

Company type

Public

Founded year

1891

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

The University of Arizona Libraries is the public state university library system of The University of Arizona, serving UA students, faculty, and staff across five physical locations in Tucson and Phoenix with collections exceeding 9 million volumes, research support, makerspace facilities, AI training, and a campus open-access repository.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Academic Library Services

NAICS

Libraries and Archives (51921), Libraries and Archives (519210)

SIC

Services-Educational Services (8200)

akta.pro primary industry

Academic & Research Library Operations (College/University Libraries) (EDAEAGAB)

akta.pro secondary industries

Digital Library & Electronic Resources Operations (e-Resources, Repositories, Licensing) (EDAEAGAF), Library User Services & Information Support (Reference, Research Help, Instruction Support) (EDAEAGAL), Special Libraries (Law, Medical, Corporate, Government) Operations (EDAEAGAD), Interlibrary Loan (ILL) & Resource Sharing Operations (EDAEAGAK)

Keywords

• Academic library services
• Research support services
• Open access publishing
• Makerspace and digitization
• Special collections archiving

Headquarters

HQ city

Tucson

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices5 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Infrastructure, Technology or R&D, Supply Chain, Others

Revenue model

1. Institutional Funding: Funded by University of Arizona and Arizona Board of Regents as part of the university's educational mission. Fiscal Year 2023 base budget of $37,487,276.
2. Donations and Gifts: Accepts donations to support library operations, collections, and initiatives. Received $7M gift from Frederick Gardner Cottrell Foundation for Science-Engineering Library renovations.

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

The University of Arizona Libraries operates a public academic library system providing access to physical and digital collections of more than 9 million volumes, study spaces, makerspace facilities, research support, instructional services, and open access scholarship infrastructure. The library serves University of Arizona students, faculty, and staff through five physical branches, online discovery platforms, interlibrary loan, technology lending, and dedicated AI and digital scholarship services.

Product overview

University of Arizona Libraries provides a comprehensive suite of library services through multiple physical locations (Main Library, Albert B. Weaver Science-Engineering Library, Health Sciences Library in Tucson and Phoenix, and Special Collections) and digital resources. The library operates CATalyst Studios as a makerspace and experiential learning center, offers technology lending, maintains the UA Campus Repository for open access scholarship, and provides access to research databases, interlibrary loan, and document delivery services. AI-enabled services include an AI Studio for hands-on learning and generative AI training modules for students and faculty.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• CATalyst Studios: Makerspace and experiential learning facility offering equipment, workshops, and certifications for students and community members.
• Weaver Science-Engineering Library

Products and services

• Main Library
• Albert B. Weaver Science-Engineering Library
• Health Sciences Library
• Special Collections
• CATalyst Studios
• Interlibrary Loan
• Document Delivery
• UA Campus Repository
• Technology Lending
• Open Educational Resources (OER)
• UA Libraries Search (Primo VE)
• Wildcats Memory Lab
• AI Studio
• Generative AI Training Modules

Quantifiable outcome

• 1,698,529 building visits annually across all locations
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles6 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability8 records

Feature5 records

Partnerships

21 partnerships are on record, tiered strategic and minor.

• TRAIL (Technical Report Archive and Image Library)strategicTechnology or IntegrationCollaborating with TRAIL and JSTOR using AI tools to create descriptions and transcriptions for Atomic Energy Commission records to improve discovery and searchability of historical technical reports.
• Internet ArchivestrategicStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership to expand discovery and access to millions of ebooks and other materials globally, including participation in WEST/Internet Archive Journal Digitization Project.
• Confluencenter for Creative InquirystrategicStrategic or Co-development PartnerCampus partnership collaborating on digital archive projects including Reclaiming the Border Project funded by Ford Foundation.
• PLOS (Public Library of Science)strategicStrategic or Co-development PartnerAll In agreement providing full waiver of Article Processing Charges for UA-affiliated corresponding authors publishing in all 16 PLOS journals effective January 1, 2025.
• IOP PublishingstrategicStrategic or Co-development PartnerTransformative agreement fully waiving open access publishing fees in eligible IOP journals.
• Royal Society of ChemistrystrategicStrategic or Co-development PartnerRead and Publish agreement providing complete waiver on all Article Processing Charges for open access publication in RSC journals.
• BioMed Central / SpringerOpenminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerInstitutional membership providing 15% discount on Article Processing Charges for BMC and SpringerOpen titles.
• Cambridge University PressstrategicStrategic or Co-development PartnerRead and Publish agreement providing complete waiver on all Article Processing Charges for open access publication.
• American Chemical Society (ACS)strategicStrategic or Co-development PartnerRead and Green Agreement providing option for zero-embargo green open access and reduced APC rates for gold OA.
• MIT PressstrategicStrategic or Co-development PartnerParticipating library in Direct to Open collective action providing open access publication of monographs with no author fees.
• arXivstrategicStrategic or Co-development PartnerSupporting member of arXiv, the open-access archive for scholarly articles in physics, mathematics, computer science, and related fields.
• SCOAP3strategicStrategic or Co-development PartnerInternational participant in partnership converting high energy physics journals to open access at no cost for authors.
• Open Book Collective PublishersminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerSupporting African Minds, Leuven University Press, Open Book Publishers, and other open access book publishers through membership.
• SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition)strategicStrategic or Co-development PartnerMember of international alliance of nearly 800 academic and research libraries working to create a more open system of scholarly communication.
• COAR (Confederation of Open Access Repositories)strategicStrategic or Co-development PartnerMember of international association working to support and advance open access repositories.
• DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals)strategicStrategic or Co-development PartnerAcademic library member of the community-curated directory indexing high quality open access peer-reviewed journals.
• PeerJminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerInstitutional member with library pre-payment covering basic membership ($399) for each UA author allowing one free article per year.
• Biochemical SocietystrategicStrategic or Co-development PartnerTransformative agreement covering publication in all seven Biochemical Society journals with full APC waiver.
• Company of BiologistsstrategicStrategic or Co-development PartnerTransformative agreement with complete APC waiver for open access publication in five journals including Development and Journal of Cell Science.
• University of Michigan PressminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerParticipating library in Fund to Mission model for open access monograph publication with no author fees.
• Language Science PressminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerSupporting publication of 30+ open access linguistics monographs per year through Knowledge Unlatched with no author-facing book processing charges.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves9 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• UC Berkeley Library: Public R1 library with extensive special collections, makerspace-equivalent services, multi-discipline branch system, and similar research-support and open access publishing role at a comparable peer institution.
• MIT Libraries: Research-intensive university library with strong STEM focus, digital scholarship services, AI experimentation, and a multi-location structure mirroring UA's science-engineering and health sciences branch model.
• Arizona State University Libraries: ASU's library system is the most direct ABOR-system peer, also serving a major Arizona public research university with multi-location branches, maker spaces, and similar student/faculty customer base in the same statewide governance structure.
• University of Michigan Press: University press partner of UA Press via the Fund to Mission open access monograph model; comparable to The University of Arizona Press in scale, mission, and scholarly publishing role within an academic library system.
• Stanford Libraries: Stanford operates similar academic library services with deep special collections, transformative open access agreements, digital scholarship programs, and makerspace-adjacent experiential learning facilities.
• University of Michigan Library: Large R1 public university library with multi-branch system, deep special collections, robust open access program, and active AI/digital scholarship initiatives that closely parallel UA Libraries' offerings.

Broad incumbents

• Internet Archive: Large-scale digital library partner of UA Libraries via the WEST/Journal Digitization Project and open access collaboration; provides digital preservation, ebook lending, and web archiving that complement academic library offerings.
• HathiTrust: Academic library consortium providing shared digital preservation and access to digitized book collections; UA Libraries is a member and shares the digital-scholarship and preservation mission with this broader infrastructure provider.
• OCLC: Global library cooperative providing the shared infrastructure (cataloging, resource sharing, WorldCat) that UA Libraries and other academic libraries depend on, including interlibrary loan and discovery services.

Others

• JSTOR: Digital library and scholarly content platform actively partnering with UA Libraries on AI-driven metadata creation for Atomic Energy Commission records; comparable as a digital library infrastructure and content-access partner to academic libraries.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/user/UAZLibraries
• Facebookfacebook.com/uazlibraries
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/uazlibraries
• Instagraminstagram.com/uazlibraries

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles6 records

Subsidiaries6 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about University of Arizona Libraries