The University of Chicago is fortunate to have superb library facilities, well suited to student and faculty scholarship. Regenstein Library's print resources total more than seven million printed works, increasing at the rate of 150,000 volumes per year. Over thirty million manuscripts and archival pieces, 420,000 maps and aerial photographs, and large sets of microform materials complement the printed collections. The distinctive rare book, manuscript and archival holdings of the Special Collections Research Center are available for your study. Aggressive growth in the Library's electronic assets ensures a balanced representation of resources in all formats. The Library Catalog, Web pages, indexes and abstracting tools, digital maps, and images can be accessed from computers in the Library, on campus, and remotely. Major electronic resources include 40,000 licensed full-text serial titles, 170,000 licensed monographs, and 500 licensed reference databases.
It holds a full range of social science periodicals and has excellent specialized collections, such as those on South Asia and East Asia. "The Reg" is also a comfortable and pleasant place to work, no trivial matter when conducting a major research project. Its reading rooms are well furnished with reference materials and numerous study carrels, and include permanent student lockers to store books and research materials. This major library is the very heart of the University, and it is well designed for graduate needs.
The Social Sciences Research Center (SSRC) is designed to foster team-based and multi-method collaborative approaches to understanding complex social problems, addressing the rapidly evolving and growing needs for research infrastructure across the social sciences. Much of the space is comprised of open-concept research bullpens, collaborative spaces, and a large workshop room that brings together faculty and students from across the division for research and programmatic activities. The Center is also home to the Masters Program in Computational Social Science, and space for several core research centers, including The Center for Spatial Data Science, The Knowledge Lab, and The Population Research Center.
Graduate study requires strong research facilities, especially libraries and computers. The department has a cluster of personal computers linked to central workstations and the Internet. The PCs are specifically reserved for graduate students and are located in the department's offices in Pick Hall. In addition, several centers associated with the department provide additional computing for specific research projects; most important of these is Social Sciences Computing Services.