Research Resources

Research Databases

Search dozens of general and specialized collections of full-text articles and citations, representing the contents of thousands of journals and other periodicals.

Online Journal Locator

Find out if a particular journal is included in one or more of the databases we subscribe to.

Interlibrary Loan

If all else fails, our staff will obtain a copy of the article you need from another library.

Research Appointment

Schedule a research appointment with a librarian.

Library Discovery Catalog

Naropa’s library catalog.

EBSCOhost E-Book Collection

This collection of full-text electronic books replaces netLibrary and provides access to more than 3,000 books*. Check out this Libguide created to help you use your eBook collection. *When you are finished using your selected eBook, please close out your browser session, so that other users may access the content.

University of Colorado Boulder Library

The catalog for the libraries at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Students and faculty can borrow books from Norlin Library with a voucher from Naropa.

Boulder Public Library Catalog

You can get a Boulder Public Library card if you have a current Colorado mailing address.

WorldCat

A catalog of books and other materials held by thousands of libraries worldwide.

Google Books

Search the full text of millions of books, see previews of many of those books, and read scanned copies of books whose copyright has expired.

Interlibrary Loan

If all else fails, our staff will get you the book you need from another library.

Altered Books

Most of the 174 artists’ books at the PORTLAND PUBLIC LIBRARY (which inspired our own Altered Books Project in Fall 2007) have image links, like THIS ONE. Find one or more that grab you, and request them through INTERLIBRARY LOAN. Library staff will be glad to help!

For more information about these collections and how to access them, visit our Archives and Special Collections webpages.

Naropa University Digital Archives

The Naropa University Digital Archive is an ongoing project of the Naropa University Archives. Our mission is to preserve the institutional heritage of Naropa University and to digitize and provide access to key collections. Please contact us with any questions about these materials or collections.

Bombay Gin

Started in 1974, Bombay Gin is the literary journal of Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics—co-founded by Allen Ginsberg and Anne Waldman—at Naropa University. The library holds volumes of Bombay Gin in our Permanent Reserve collections which may be consulted on-site at the library during our open hours. Find issues in our Discovery catalog.

Burning Deck Press

Special Collections holds the entire catalog of Burning Deck Press publications.

To view the collection, please contact us to make an appointment.

Chögyam Trungpa Digital Library at Naropa University

Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche Recordings

The library has an extensive collection of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche audio recordings available for checkout. Find them in our library Discovery catalog.

Additional library resources related to Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche can be found on the following guide The Legacy of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche at Naropa University.

Finding Aids & Guides

Please get in contact with us if you have questions about finding aids or guides related to our collections.

Harry Smith Print Shop & Kavyayanthra Press

The Kavyayantra Press is the imprint for chapbooks and broadsides published through the Department of Writing and Poetics. The press was housed in the cottage where filmmaker, scholar and musicologist Harry Smith resided. The Naropa University archives collects student works, visiting printers, writers, and faculty related to letterpress coursework.

To learn more about the Kavyayanthra Press consult: Schelling, Andrew, The Kavyayantra Press: A Brief History 1993-1997, (Boulder, CO: Smokeproof Press, 1997).

Journal of Contemplative Psychotherapy

Naropa University partnered with The Windhorse Guild to provide digital access to all nine volumes of this journal published by Naropa and the Nalanda Foundation from 1980 to 1994.

JKS Digital Audio Collection

This continually growing resource contains approximately 2,000 audio recordings and once complete will contain over 11,000 audio and video recordings from our institutional archives.

MA Student Digital Thesis Collection

Provides searching and indexing of theses collections to facilitate staff and faculty use. This is an ongoing project. Please contact us if you have questions about access or use.

Magical Poetics Oral History Project

An oral history project created by Naropa alum Robert Erik Shoemaker. Shoemaker interviews important contemporary poets writing within the Naropa community and the related areas of magical poetics.

Naropa Institute & Naropa University Course Catalogs

View course catalogs for Naropa University and the Naropa Institute from 1977 through the present in PDF format.

Photographic & Image Collections

The photographic and image collections depict daily life at Naropa beginning in 1974.

Rabbi Zalman M. Schachter-Shalomi Collection

The Zalman M. Schachter-Shalomi Collection highlights the activities and interdisciplinary knowledge of the founder of the Jewish Renewal Movement. The physical archive from which the digital collection is derived contains 5,000 manuscript pages, 500 audio cassettes, 500 photographs, 50 VHS tapes, and 25 posters and advertisements covering subjects as diverse as Jewish mysticism, Hasidism, spiritual eldering, interreligious dialogue, psychology of religion and paradigm shift. The digital collection includes audio recordings.

Small Press and Chapbook Collection

The Small Press and Chapbook Collection includes over 1,000 poetry chapbooks, small press periodicals, and other items related to Naropa’s Writing and Poetics program. Many were created by Naropa faculty or visiting artists such as Ted Berrigan, Robert Creeley, Diane DiPrima, and many others.

To view the collection, please contact us to make an appointment.

Tibetan Collection

The Tibetan Collection is a library of 2,200 volumes, containing many thousands of individual texts. A catalog of a large number of these texts has been created by Naropa graduate Justin Phillips, as a gift to the library and future students.

To view the collection, please contact us to make an appointment.

Requesting Research Assistance

One on one research assistance is available for all students, faculty, and staff. These sessions are made by clicking here or by contacting staff at library@naropa.edu.

Faculty who would like to have Information Literacy Instruction offered in their classes should contact the library at library@naropa.edu.

Naropa Writing Center

The Naropa Writing Center provides support for a variety of writing assignments, and also offers assistance with citations and formatting. For more information please
email nwc@naropa.edu or visit their Writing Resources page here.

Institutional Review Board

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) are federally mandated panels that review research conducted by organizations in the US to assure compliance with regulations designed to protect study participants, also called human subjects.  If you do research with human subjects, it is important that you read and familiarize yourself with these IRB requirements. All faculty, staff, and students at Naropa University who do research with human subjects need to understand and follow the guidelines.

Please visit MyNaropa. Under the Academic Support Services drop-down menu, select Institutional Review Board for more information.

• Directory of Open Access Databases
• Open Access on Project Muse
• Google Scholar
• HathiTrust Digital Library
• Wikipedia List of Free Resources
• Google Books
• Internet Archive Text Archive
• The Online Books Page
• Open Research Library
• Open and Free Content on Jstor (different from the Jstor we subscribe to, available on our databases page)
• Historical U.S. Newspapers Guide

Local Libraries with Online Resources:

• Boulder Public
• Longmont Public
• Denver Public Library
• Jefferson County Library
• Westminster Public Library