The Libraries are a center of discovery with collections and services that enable learning, scholarship and knowledge creation. The libraries contain books, maps, video, other physical collections and exhibits -- as well as our extensive special collections. Few books were on hand when the university began offering classes in September 1871, those few purchased with a small appropriation for textbooks. Temporary housing in downtown Syracuse sufficed for the initial years of a meager library. Two years after its move in 1873 to two small rooms in the university's first major building, the Hall of Languages, the library still held only 2,300 volumes. The Carnegie Library opened in 1907. Bird Library opened in 1972