NIST peptide libraries are comprehensive, annotated mass spectral reference collections from various organisms and proteins useful for the rapid matching and identification of acquired MS/MS spectra. Spectra were produced by tandem mass spectrometers using liquid chromatographic separations followed by electrospray ionization. Unlike the NIST small molecule electron ionization library which contains one spectrum per molecular structure, there are several different modes of fragmentation (ion trap and ?beam-type? collision cells are currently the most commonly used fragmentation devices) that result in spectra with different, energy dependent, patterns. These result in multiple spectral libraries, distinguished by ionization mode, each of which may contain several spectra per peptide. Different libraries have also been assembled for iTRAQ-4 derivatized peptides and for phosphorylated peptides. Separating libraries by animal species reduces search time, although investigators may elect to include several species in their searches.