Tag Archives: library collections

Awesome libraries

I always have a special love on libraries. The three libraries at Middlebury, Davis Family Library, Amstrong Science Library and Starr Library in Axinn center are my favorite buildings on campus. Middlebury’s libraries provide enormous resources that support the teaching, learning and research on campus. I started working at the circulation desk at Davis Library in my freshman year. Having worked for almost four years, I’d love to share with prospective students.

One of the most impressive buildings on campus is the giant “space-ship-like” building called Davis Family Library. Before it got its official name, it was called “main library” because, well, it is the *main* library. It hosts most of the collection and runs as the center for interlibrary loans, academic resources, and studying advices. The amount of the collection, one million, may not seem to be a large number, but all the books are shared by only 2500 undergraduate students. You can grab the book you want and borrow it for four weeks. If you need additional time, feel free to renew it.

Whenever you need something outside of our collection, you can always use interlibrary loan. We have two types of interlibrary loans: Nexpress and ILL. Nexpress is a consortium of libraries in New England: Bates College, Bowdoin College, Colby College, Middlebury College, Northeastern University, Wellesley College, and Williams College. Our libraries have created a combined catalog of our collections. Authorized users may borrow other member libraries’ materials by requesting them online in the NExpress Catalog and have them delivered to Middlebury for pickup. It is totally free and the ordered from NExpress usually arrive in 3 workdays. The other type of interlibrary loan is the *InterLibrary Loan (ILL)*. If the item is not avaliable in all the libraries in the nine New England colleges, you can also fill out an online form and request from any other libraries in the world.

For journal articles, Middlebury subscribe the majority of articles of many online archives such as JStor and Web of Science. If some articles request a fee, you could always fill out an online form and request the articles through the ILL office. The library will pay the fee and electronically deliver the artiles to your Middlebury account in a few days.

The Davis Library also provides equipments for loan: laptops (PC and Mac), headphones, chargers, digital cameras, camcorders, external hard drives, voice recorders, tripods, mouses, GPSs, webcams, dongles for Mac, projecters, screens, … just anything you can think of. Printings are free within quotas. From my own experience I’ve never used up my quotas. You can also print large posters in Amstrong library.

Amstrong (science) library is located in the beautiful seven-story building called Bicentennial Hall (BiHall). The size of Amstrong Library is relatively small, but it has a more focused collection: all the collections are related to science. BiHall is also the “home” for most of the science departments and labs. As a science student at Middlebury, It’s really conveient to immerse myself into the science world in BiHall.

The third library, Starr Library at Axinn Center, is the “oldest” and “newest” library on campus. It is currently the oldest library on campus, but it was renovated in 2007. It hosts the old books and some of the student thesis. This library, in my opinion, is the one of the most classy and comfortable places to study. If you ever visit Middlebury, Axinn Center a must-go.

There are also various other resources available. The Technology Helpdesk is at Davis Library to help with any computer-related problems. All the libraries are equipped by large-screen computers and you can find almost any academic softwares on these computers. The Center for Teaching, Learning and Research is in Davis Library and students can get help on writing or ask for tutors for private academic assistance for free. Librarians are on duty everyday and they are the nicest people to talk to when you have questions on finding data, article or governmental information.

In short, I can’t thank more on the libraries for support my study and research in the past four years. They are really amazing. If you have any questions about library resources, feel free to visit http://www.middlebury.edu/offices/technology/lis/ or contact 802-443-2000.