By: Brooke Wertman/Contributing Writer
When students walk into the Green Library, they may stumble upon people studying in quiet spaces or using the computers. What they may not notice is the enormous quantity of books the library holds.
Many students are familiar with some of the more accessible services offered at the library, for example, the laptops and study rooms that are available for checkout, the computer labs, copiers, printers, study tables and designated quiet areas.
While a lot of students take advantage of these features, the University’s library has much more to offer – it is one of the largest libraries in the southeastern United States.
“I think our collection is more extensive than people realize,” said Roberto Pacheco, the senior library technical assistant.
The library houses a collection of books that numbers in the millions and subscribes to thousands of scholarly journals – both of which contain boundless quantities of information that could be used for research and academic papers.
The fifth floor of the Green Library contains the School of Architecture’s library, along with books related to the fine arts on the fifth floor, journals and audio-visual materials.
“We have a vast collection of movies, documentaries and music, but really only the film and music students ever check out items,” said Rochelle Radford, a sophomore majoring in social work, who works as a desk assistant in the Sound and Image Resources Department.
The second floor of the library is frequented by students because of its ample study space and computers, but many students may not realize that there are several useful departments on this floor.
Course reserves are housed in the circulation desk, along with interlibrary loans, a useful service for ordering books that are not available at the University’s libraries.
Students can utilize this service by creating an ILLiad account through the library website. Government documents can also be found on this floor.
Here, students can find documents from the state and federal government in addition to international documents. Students are privileged to have access to documents belonging to the United Nations, as the University’s library is one of four hundred United Nations Depository Library system.
At the circulation desk, there is also some new technology available for check out as the library has recently acquired several e-readers, including Kindles, Nooks, iPads, and Sony e-readers.
Some come preloaded with many titles and all provide access to many online databases that have large collections of e-books.
Aside from the many physical materials the library offers, the library’s website is has a wealth of information. There are many e-books which can be found using the online card catalog and read from your computer.
Any questions one has about the library and its collection can be answered online by browsing through the library’s FAQs or by having a live chat with a librarian.
Students can also find many helpful tutorials online on a variety of topics.
The website provides access to all of the databases the school subscribes to, which offers an alternative to searching for a topic on Google.
These databases can often lead to articles written by credible sources which have information more specific to the topic being searched. One of the new features now available through the website is the Filmmaker’s Library Online.
This site has a collection of documentary subjects ranging from autism education to pollution in China.
In addition to being able to view the documentary, students can read the transcript, embed the link on a website and make clips from the video.
Despite the plethora of materials available, students continue to use the library mainly for the space it offers.
“I come to the library everyday, but only to study,” said Jacqueline Perez, a freshman majoring in business finance.
The services the library offers often become more valuable as students progress further down the path to their degree, where they find themselves required to have better sources of information. “I do use the study rooms, but I also check out books, and I use ILLiad a lot, as well as the online resources,” said Anna Ladowski, a graduate student working on a masters in religious studies.
In the era of Google, libraries are no longer the unique hubs of information they once were.
Knowledge is more accessible now than ever before and from the comfort of home as well, but not everything can be found online, or if it can, it often comes at a price. The library is still unique in being entirely free for University students. Here, one can find articles from journals dedicated to exploring one topic in great depth, rare and out of print books, both of which would be both difficult to find and costly to order online on your own.