Brookfield Zoo Library Collection

The Brookfield Zoo Library, a zoological research center, provides Zoo staff, interns and volunteers and members,and the general public (by appointment) with a core collection of books, monographs, and periodicals enabling their continuing education. The collection contains materials in the fields of: exotic wildlife (animal behavior, husbandry, conservation, ecology, veterinary medicine, pathology, genetics and nutrition), horticulture, and zoos (history, design, and exhibitry).

General Research Collection (Circulation and Reference)
The Brookfield Zoo Library contains more than 8,000 volumes and currently receives over 300 periodicals (print and electronic) devoted to zoology, botany, species’ biodiversity and biogeography. The Library maintains in-depth monographs on the animal families and genera; representative endangered species at Brookfield Zoo and in the wild; as well as materials that support the core collection. In addition, the Library has a special collection of publications from other zoos such as animal collection inventories, annual reports, guidebooks and miscellaneous pamphlets.

Special Collections
The Library’s special collections consist of archival material relating to the history of Brookfield Zoo, its scientists and staff, expeditions and research, Zoo exhibitions, education, and general administrative history. These archives also include personal papers and manuscript collections of individuals closely associated with the Zoo and/or the history of zoological science. In addition to textual material, are a large Photograph Collection, and the Art and Memorabilia Collection, including drawings by Ralph Graham, Ugo Mochi, and Karl Plath as well as Zoo memorabilia.

The Library also has a modest collection of rare books and periodicals that do not circulate.

Digital Collections
An initiative to create digital collections was launched in 2003. The goal is to create a database complete with Brookfield Zoo history that can be used by researchers around the world. The pilot project of the Digital Library is focused on the early years of Brookfield Zoo: 1920-1950. This has provided the Library with the opportunity to mount digital images, of photographs and correspondence, on the Metropolitan Library System’s Catalogue, SWAN (http://swan.sls.lib.il.us) as well as the OCLC catalogue, World Cat (http://newfirstsearch.oclc.org).