Riyad Nassar Library

The Riyad Nassar Library (Beirut campus) is named after Riyad Nassar, president of LAU from 1982 to 2004, and started functioning on September 19, 2005.

The university’s first library was established in 1934, when the institution — then known as the American Junior College for Women — moved permanently to its current campus in Ras Beirut.  As part of many efforts to provide reliable services to the college community, the library collection acquired thousands of materials. As the college grew, the library’s location on Sage Hall’s third floor quickly turned inadequate.

The need for more room was met in the 1960s through the construction of an entire upper story dedicated to this purpose in Irwin Hall. At the time the library space was named in honor of Dr. William Stoltzfus, president of the college from 1937 to 1958.

In the 1990s, the demands of LAU’s growing academic programs called for further expansion. In 1997, the library moved to more spacious premises in the Learning Resources Center building.

Finally, the library moved once more in the summer of 2005 to its final destination, the Riyad Nassar Library building.

Joseph G. Jabbra Library

Joseph G. Jabbra Library (JGJL) is a state-of-the-art facility providing a diverse set of services to support teaching, learning, and research. The old library closed on November 5, 2018 with the new library opening its doors for the first time on November 6, 2018.

The five-story building incorporates open-space study areas, group study rooms, multipurpose rooms, a meeting room, different lounges and seating arrangements, and many other unconventional amenities that offer an inspiring atmosphere conducive to learning.

Its designers researched the history, local culture and typology of the ancient city of Byblos and weaved the findings into the conceptual design. The pattern found on the exterior of the library is based on the ancient Phoenician alphabet which highlights Byblos’s most cultural heritage. JGJL is USGBC’s LEED Gold certified, and features rain water harvesting and re-use.

Health Sciences Library

Occupying the ground floor of the prestigious Gilbert and Rose-Marie Chagoury Health Sciences Center on the Byblos Campus, LAU’s Health Sciences Library (HSL) was inaugurated on the 25th of November 2013.

HSL promotes excellence in health and general wellbeing by developing and maintaining services and resources that support the health information needs of the School of Medicine (SOM), School of Nursing (SON), School of Pharmacy (SOP) and the LAU Medical Center-Rizk Hospital (LAUMC-RH).