Skip to Main Content

Industrial Relations Library

Library of the Princeton University Industrial Relations Section

Mission and History

Established in 1922, the Princeton University Industrial Relations Library is the oldest academic industrial relations collection.  The collection and staff serve the faculty and graduate students of the Industrial Relations Section.  Research interests include aspects of unemployment and racial discrimination, the economics of labor supply and retirement, education and school quality, the effects on minimum wages, labor turnover and job duration, quality of life issues, law and economics.

The administrative records and research files for the Section from 1922-1984 (mostly 1930-1965) have been digitized.  The images can be viewed online.

Several histories of the Section have been published. The most recent is Princeton University's Industrial Relations Section in Historical Perspective: 1922-2015 by Lawrence Damian Robinson.

IR Library Clearinghouse Functions

From its inception, the Industrial Relations Section envision its library as part of an IR clearinghouse, obtaining and providing often difficult to find publications for its students and faculty and for researchers and practitioners around the country, as illustrated in the image below.