The University Library (UL) houses extensive collections in science and engineering, social science and business administration, and each of the branch libraries at the Colleges has some unique features. Chung Chi College Library (CCL) holds strong collections in education, music, and religious studies. New Asia College Library (NAL) houses good collections in Chinese literature, fine arts and philosophy. United College Library (UCL) is a Multimedia Library. Also located in the Library is the American Studies Resource Library whose nucleus is an interdisciplinary resource donated by the USIS American Library and a recently donated William Faulkner collection. The Li Ping Medical Library (MEL) houses very strong collections in clinical and medical materials for the clinical programs at the Prince of Wales Hospital. The pre-clinical materials are placed in the University Library. The Architecture Library (ARL) is established to support the core curriculum of the Architecture programme, the collection covers subjects in the buildings industry and environmental sciences. The Lee Quo Wei Law Library (LAW) which is located within the University Library, provides legal information service.

The Library of Congress classification system has been used since 1969 for Western language materials and from 1971 for East Asian language materials. Medical books are classified according to the National Library of Medicine scheme.

Printed publications are distributed over five libraries in the University Library System broadly according to subject. Note that because of specific approaches in the areas of medicine and architecture, the Medical and Architecture Libraries do contain a wider range of materials. The sixth library in the System, the United College Wu Chung Multimedia Library, houses audio-visual materials on all subjects. Books accompanied by multimedia materials will be distributed according to the subject orientation of the library.

Outlines of the classification schemes and distribution of books are listed as follows:

CLASSES	SUBJECTS	UL	CCL	NAL
A (all sub-classes)	General	x	x	x
B - BD	Philosophy			x
BF	Psychology, Parapsychology, Occultism	x
BH	Aesthetics			x
BJ	Ethics, Social usages, Etiquette			x
BL - BX	Religion		x
C - F	History	x
G - GF	Geography	x
GN - GT	Anthropology	x
GV	Recreation, Sports, Games		x
H (all sub-classes)	Social Sciences	x
J (all sub-classes)	Political Science	x
K (all sub-classes)	Law	x     [notes 7]
L (all sub-classes)	Education		x
M (all sub-classes)	Music		x
N (all sub-classes except NA)	Fine Arts			x
NA	Architecture	[notes (4)]
P (except P87 - P99.6)	Philology and linguistics		x
P87 - P99.6	Communication, Mass Media	x
PA	Classical languages and literatures		x
PB	Celtic languages		x
PC	Romance languages		x
PD	Germanic languages		x
PE	English language		x
PF	West Germanic languages, Dutch, German		x
PG	Slavic, Baltic, Armenian languages and literature		x
PH	Finno-Ugrian languages and literature		x
PJ	Oriental languages and literatures		x
PK	Indo-Iranian languages and literatures		x
PL	Chinese language and literature (and other East Asian languages and literature)			x
PL500 - PL899	Japanese language & literature		x
PM	American Indian languages, Artificial languages		x
PN (except PN1990 - PN1999 & PN4699 - PN5648)	Literature, General literary history and collections, Performing arts		x
PN1990 - PN1999	Drama, Broadcasting of, etc.	x
PN4699 - PN5648	Journalism	x
PQ	Romance literatures		x
PR	English literature		x
PS	American literature		x
PT	Germanic literatures		x
PZ	Juvenile belles lettres		x
Q - QP	Science	x     [notes (3)]
QS - QZ (NLM)	Pre-clinical Sciences	x     [notes (3)]
R	Medicine [notes (6)]	x
S (all sub-classes)	Agriculture	x
T	Technology	x
TH	Building Construction	[notes (4)]
TA, TK (and all other sub-classes of T)	Engineering, etc.	x
U (all sub-classes)	Military Science	x
V (all sub-classes)	Naval Science	x
W (NLM)	Medicine	x     [notes (3)]
Z	Library Science	x	x	x

Notes:

1. A cross "x" under a Library denotes the Library will hold the class of materials in question. For example, materials on Class B - BD (Philosophy) will be held in New Asia College Library.
2. Unless otherwise specified, the subclasses of a main class of materials will be located in the same library. Take L class (Education) for example, subclasses LA, LB, LC, LD, LE, etc. will also be located in the Chung Chi College Library.
3. Materials classified under QP - QZ and W are housed in the University Library or the Li Ping Medical Library.
4. Materials classified under NA, TH and other architecture related materials are housed in the Architecture Library.
5. The Multimedia Collection is housed in United College Multimedia Library.
6. The R class is no longer in use for medical books since 1981. Instead, the classification of the National Library of Medicine of the United States has been adopted. There are some medical books published before 1975 still in the R class.
7. Materials classified under K and other law related materials are housed in the Lee Quo Wei Law Library which is located within the University Library.