Ford Library

Ford Library primarily supports the research and instructional mission of The Fuqua School of Business while also reflecting Duke University’s emphasis on interdisciplinary approaches to scholarship and learning. It assists and provides resources to a broad range of other academic units such as the Department of Economics, the Duke Law School, the Nicholas School of the Environment, and the Pratt School of Engineering. It is a state-of-the-art 21,000-square-foot sanctuary in Breeden Hall that features 260 reader spaces, a database instruction classroom, the Dorothea F. Peterjohn Virtual Leadership Collection, and a conference room housing the J. B. Fuqua Collection, an installation of archival materials about the school’s primary benefactor.

Ford Library’s collections cover a broad spectrum of business disciplines, including accounting, corporate strategy, data analytics, decision sciences, economics, entrepreneurship, finance, global business management, health sector management, marketing, operations management, and organizational behavior. Recent acquisitions focus on key business issues in the curriculum, such as diversity, equity and inclusion, leadership, ethics, climate studies, and sustainability. Library staff work closely with the teaching faculty, researchers, and administrators to ensure that the collection mirrors current developments in business education, scholarship, and practice.

Ford Library provides the principal business collections for the university, including more than 50,000 books and journals, both in print and online. It supplements this discipline-focused collection with extensive print and online career resources for Duke students and alumni; an ESL and foreign language learning collection; a media collection that includes Kindles pre-loaded with topical collections and recreational reading; and a strategy-focused board game collection.

Ford Library emphasizes its commitment to current business scholarship with subscriptions to over ninety databases. Faculty and students, both on campus and worldwide, have ready access to these databases supplied by major business information providers such as Bloomberg, Bureau van Dijk, Euromonitor, Factiva, FactSet, IBISWorld, MarketLine, Mergent, Pitchbook, Refinitiv, and S&P Capital IQ. These databases contain information and statistics on companies, industries, financial markets, and other topics of interest to business faculty and students. The library spends $1.5 million annually on its library materials, electronic resources, and databases to support faculty research and student learning in all areas related to business.

Ford Library employs subject-specialist librarians to assist faculty members and students with their research questions by telephone, email, chat, WebEx, Zoom, and in person. These librarians provide classes in library technology and database use throughout the year as well as assist faculty in identifying and licensing specialized data sets for research.

Ford Library’s website highlights its activities, collections, and resources, and it provides updates on instructional classes, new acquisitions, access to interlibrary loan resources, and the online catalog. The catalog allows patrons to locate materials in all Duke Libraries as well as in the neighboring university libraries. Learn more about Ford Library from library staff or via the library’s website at library.fuqua.duke.edu.