The mission of the Andrew W. Breidenbach Environmental Research Center Library (AWBERC) is to support the information needs of the EPA staff at the Andrew W. Breidenbach Research Center.

The Library also provides resources and services to other EPA offices, federal and state government agencies, businesses, and the general public. The library provides reference service to the general public via phone, fax, or electronic mail. Online searching of free databases is provided by the library staff for the general public.

Contact Information

We are located at:
26 W. Martin Luther King Dr., Room 406
Cincinnati, OH 45268

We can be contacted at:
Phone: 513-569-7703
Fax: 513-569-7709
E-mail:CI_Awberc_Library@epa.gov

Mailing Address:
AWBERC Library
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
26 W. Martin Luther King Dr.
Cincinnati, OH 45268

Hours of Operation
The Library is open Monday through Friday, 7:30 AM – 5 PM (excluding federal holidays). We are open to the public by appointment only. To set up an appointment, please contact the Library at 513-569-7703. Visitors to the OCA Reading Room should contact the Library for an appointment as well.

Borrowing Policy and Interlibrary Loans

Borrowing privileges are limited to EPA staff and other libraries.  Members of the public can make requests for material via an interlibrary loan office of their institution or public library.

To locate EPA library and repository materials, you can search the EPA National Library Catalog. If you have any questions, please call or e-mail the library.

Information For Other Libraries: We freely share materials with other libraries via the OCLC Interlibrary Loan system. Our OCLC symbol is ELB and we are members of FEDL (Federal Libraries and Information Centers) and LVIS (Libraries Very Interested in Sharing). For libraries that do not have OCLC access, please contact the Librarian at 513-569-7040 or CI_Awberc_Library@epa.gov for alternate methods.

About the Collection

The Andrew W. Breidenbach Environmental Research Library houses one of the largest scientific and technical collection in the EPA National Library Network, including more than 19,000 books, over 200,000 technical reports, and 1,000 journal titles.

The Library’s major subject areas include bacteriology, biotechnology, hazardous waste, risk assessment, toxicology, wastewater treatment, water pollution and water quality. Specialized collections include the EPA  Repository, A.W. Breidenbach, John Kurtz Hoskins, and Francis I. Norris collections.

History of the Library

The AWBERC Library is a composite of the holdings, dating from 1950, of the Public Health Service and the Federal Water Pollution Control Administration. The facility was established in 1971 and at one point served as the scientific and technical focal point for all EPA libraries. It was moved to its present location in 1976.