Established in 1964 by the UW Water Resources Institute, Wisconsin’s Water Library (formerly known as the Water Resources Library) is unique among UW-Madison’s many libraries for its collection of almost 30,000 volumes of water-related information about the Great Lakes and the waters of Wisconsin.  The library includes a curriculum collection, dozens of educational videos, a children’s collection, and more than 20 journals and 100 newsletters.

The mission of Wisconsin’s Water Library is to collect, preserve and provide science-based resources about waters of the Great Lakes and Wisconsin, in support of the UW Aquatic Sciences Center, and both of the programs it administers, the Water Resources Institute and the Sea Grant Institute. This primarily entails:

• Participating in outreach to Wisconsin residents of all ages to heighten awareness of the Great Lakes and Wisconsin’s water resources;
• Supporting the educational and research activities of the Aquatic Sciences Center;
• Preserving the library collection for future as well as historical value.

If you are a resident of Wisconsin, Wisconsin’s Water Library is open for your use. Any adult resident in Wisconsin can check out books from Wisconsin’s Water Library for free. To find out how, visit our How to Borrow Materials page.

If you are affliliated with any of the University System campuses, the Library’s collection may be searched on-line via MadCat. The collection is supplemented by the major research collection, numerous online databases, and full-text resources of the UW-Madison.

The library is located on the west end of the UW-Madison campus, in Goodnight Hall. Books, documents, reports, microfiche, most newsletters, and the current issues of journals are in room 238. Back issues of journals are in room 232A. The librarian is in room 247.