Campus libraries support teaching and research at the undergraduate and graduate levels in all fields covered by the Anthropology Department and its Research Laboratories of Archaeology and serve as a resource for the citizens of North Carolina. Holdings for anthropology rank among the top twenty university libraries in the country, with exceptional strengths in anthropological and socio-cultural theory (including the development of anthropological thought), archaeological methodology, classic ethnographical studies, ethnicity and race/racism, folklore, gender/sexuality, human evolution, medical anthropology, social movements and systems, and for the study of the United States, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Materials related to population/demography (including migration) and for the study of the American South and North Carolina specifically are among the most extensive found anywhere in the world. Because the libraries also support graduate programs in dozens of social and health science fields, resources on related subjects of interest to faculty and students are typically available on campus.

UNC libraries acquire English-language books and periodicals (including e-journals) comprehensively from all parts of world as well as a wide range of relevant foreign-language materials; they also provide access to the major databases. Because they support graduate programs in dozens of social and health science fields, resources on related subjects of interest to faculty and students are typically available on campus. In addition to global holdings of more than five million volumes, over four million microforms, nearly two million government documents, hundreds of thousands of audiovisuals, maps and photographs, tens of thousands of print subscriptions, campus libraries offer more than 500 databases and over 40,000 electronic journals.

The Walter Royal Davis Library houses the major collections and services for anthropology and archaeology. With the exception of most older government documents and individual titles in large microform collections, nearly all library holdings are in the online catalog. In addition to comprehensive general and reference collections databases), Davis Library also has important specialized resources for anthropology in its geographic information systems service and government resources and microforms collections.

The Media Resources Center, located in the House Undergraduate Library, has films and sound recordings in anthropology and archaeology, while the Carolina Population Center Library complements the holdings that can be found in Davis Library. Wilson Library's North Carolina Collection has in-depth collections related to North Carolina. The Health Sciences Library has important resources on biomedical topics of interest to anthropologists and archaeologists.

Duke University libraries possess significant holdings in cultural anthropology that complement what can be found in campus libraries, especially for Brazil, Canada, Central America, Japan, Korea, Mexico, South Asia, and the British Commonwealth countries of Africa, and possess exceptional strengths in biblical archaeology. The libraries' membership in the Center for Research Libraries provides users with additional collections of specialized materials, particularly foreign dissertations and government publications, books and periodicals not in English, newspapers published abroad, ethnic newspapers published in North America, and large microform sets (especially for area studies).