Libraries Museums

Knowledge: SMU's most powerful resource

SMU Libraries

With more than four million volumes, extraordinary special collections, and the largest private law library in the Southwest, losing yourself in SMU's libraries is one of the best guilty pleasures the Hilltop has to offer.

The SMU libraries provide a variety of study spaces for students ranging from quiet study areas like the Fondren Centennial Reading Room to collaborative spaces to a full-service Starbucks in for study breaks and refueling. The libraries also offer personalized research support from our subject librarians as well as a series of workshops to support students’ research and study needs. With six on-campus libraries plus the Fort Burgwin Library at SMU-in-Taos, library resources and services are easily accessible. When you're offsite, just a few clicks of the Library Catalog provide you 24/7 access to materials in all SMU libraries including online resources, reserve materials and digital collections. 

The Bridwell Library, DeGolyer Library of Special Collections and Hamon Arts Library regularly host exhibitions of rare materials from their own collections and collections throughout the world. The Friends of the SMU Libraries sponsor a series of community events each year featuring renowned authors, historians, artists and curators.

Museums

The Meadows Museum at Southern Methodist University houses one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of Spanish art outside of Spain. With works dating from the 10th to the 21st century, the internationally renowned collection presents a broad spectrum of art covering a thousand years of Spanish heritage.

The George W. Bush Presidential Center uniquely integrates the records of a national archive, the thematic exhibits of a presidential museum and the intellectual capital of a research-based policy institute to advance ideas based on the core principles of the Bush Presidency: freedom, opportunity, responsibility and compassion. The Center tells the story of a defining period in our country’s history and serves as a platform from which world‑class scholars conduct serious, independent research aimed at generating practical solutions to important public policy problems.