This paper puts the contemporary situation of some Lebanese university libraries in a broader context. It introduces the country, and outlines its higher education system, library science education, professional association, and publishing activity. It reviews the varying situations in the libraries of 3 selected Universities - the American University of Beirut, the Beirut Arab University and the Lebanese University, and contrasts this with other university libraries in the Arab world. It adds to the body of published knowledge about the current situation in respect of management, staffing, buildings, automation, information retrieval, bibliographic records, online and CD databases, and document delivery. The limited published information was supplemented by interviews with a number of staff to elicit their views on the current situation and a survey of students experiences of using the libraries. With the exception of the American University of Beirut, the libraries facilities and services are not comparable to best practice in other Arab countries or the western world. This work highlighted some of the difficulties encountered by the libraries and their users, perhaps not entirely the result of the civil war, but indicates that plans are in place to take the libraries to the next step of development.