University Library System

The University Library System provides support for graduate studies and research through collections in the 28-story W.E.B. Du Bois Library and two science libraries.

The W.E.B. Du Bois Library houses materials in the social sciences and the humanities, the Government Documents Collection, the Music Library, and Special Collections and Archives, where the W.E.B. Du Bois collection is located. A reserve reading room and multimedia reserve collection are maintained on the third floor. Most of the science collection is found in two branch libraries: the Biological Sciences Library in Morrill Science Center, and the Physical Sciences and Engineering Library in the Lederle Graduate Research Center, which is also a depository for U.S. patents. A current UCard, the University photographic I.D., serves as a library card.

Present library holdings include more than 5.5 million books, periodical volumes, and government documents; over 2 million of these items are in microformat. About 15,300 serials, including 8,000 journals, are currently received. Numerous periodical indexes and full text databases may also be accessed electronically.

The Five College online catalog provides electronic access to library catalog records in each institution through two databases UMass and Four Colleges (Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke and Smith colleges). The online catalog is the current record of the collections and provides a variety of ways in which to access library holdings information. Remote access is available.

The University Library System is a depository for United States government publications; it also receives several categories of pub-lications from the United Nations and houses publications of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Records of federal publications from 1976 to the present are available on the online catalog.

Reference librarians are available to answer questions and provide assistance in using the collections. They can supply information on course-related library instruction, database searches, interlibrary loan, and the services available through the University Library System's membership in various library consortia. Completed in 1996, the John and Ellen Calipari Room for Library Instruction is specially designed and equipped for instruction in accessing and using both electronic and traditional library resources; a second electronic classroom opened in 1999.

The catalog and other information about the Library System may also be found on the Library's home page on the World Wide Web: www.library.umass.edu