Research Guides: Guide for Faculty: Center for Research Libraries (CRL)

What is the Center for Research Libraries?

CRL is a consortium that provides access to hard-to-find primary source materials, including historical newspapers and international dissertations. Because Bates has a three-year membership beginning in 2021, Bates faculty and students can request these materials via interlibrary loan at no cost.

CRL collection highlights

Historical newspapers
CRL's collections include U.S. ethnic press selections like Le Messager, U.S. newspapers from every state, and international newspapers from around the world.
Official gazettes
These are the legal newspaper of a country, or of an administrative part of a country, which publishes the text of new laws, decrees, regulations, treaties, legal notices, and court decisions
International dissertations
Though we have comprehensive access to U.S. dissertations via ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, non-U.S. dissertations can be hard to acquire. CRL has a vast collection, and in many cases will purchase new dissertations if you request one they don't own.

For more highlights by subject, see CRL's Topic Guides.

How can I make a request?

All requests for CRL items are filled using interlibrary loan. In fact, you may be getting CRL materials without realizing, whenever you make a request for something they happen to have. There are several options for starting your request.

Our interlibrary loan form

Like any other interlibrary loan request, you can fill out a request form on our Interlibrary Loan site by copying over citation information from the CRL Catalog. For microfilm and dissertations, use the Book Request form; for articles from periodicals use Article Request like any other request.

WorldCat

You can avoid the hassle of filling out the ILL form by starting your request from WorldCat.

Find the desired item in the CRL Catalog. At the top of the record, you will see a number labeled "OCLC"; copy this.
In WorldCat, change Keyword to Accession Number, and paste in that OCLC No.

Alternatively, you can search for the item by title, but using the OCLC No. will ensure that you've found the edition at CRL.
Search, and this should bring you to the correct record. To initiate an interlibrary loan request, click on the button that says "Bates ILL," next to External Resources.
Log in to our ILL system using your Bates username and password. All the information from WorldCat should now populate an ILL book request.

If the item has no author (for example, a newspaper microfilm), enter NA or a question mark in the Author/Editors field. If it is a microfilm and you need a particular reel, you can enter that in the Notes field at the bottom.
Click Submit Request. You will be notified by email when your item arrives.

How will I receive the material?

Many CRL items are on microfilm, which you can view using our microfilm readers on the Ground Floor of Ladd. CRL can also digitize many items on request.