NEWTON GRESHAM LIBRARY

Thirteen librarians, twenty-six paraprofessionals and a number of student assistants provide reference, interlibrary loan, circulation, acquisitions, and other library services to the faculty, staff and students of the university, as well as to visiting scholars and off-campus residents. The Library contains more than 1.3 million books, bound periodicals, and government documents on open shelving. The library subscribes to over 2,700 periodicals and is a depository for selected federal and state government publications which number over 230,000 documents. Special groups of materials include paperbacks for recreational reading, a children's literature collection, school curriculum material, and a public school textbook collection.

Library holdings information is available through an online catalog that may be accessed from the hundreds of computer workstations located throughout the library and the campus. The Data Research Associates computer software is used also by library staff for cataloging, acquisition, circulation and other purposes.

Students and faculty may search both manual and computerized periodical indexes or abstracts for citations. Full access to bibliographic citations on a number of databases such as ERIC, Sociofile, Psychlit, CJ Abstracts, NCIRS, UMI Periodical Abstracts, and ABI Inform are available from campus wide on networked workstations. This same network provides easy access to library holdings at a number of Texas university libraries, including Texas A&M and the University of Texas. Most material which is not available locally is easily obtained through the OCLC interlibrary loan system and database of over 30 million bibliographic records. It enables students and faculty to obtain books, journal articles and other materials from anywhere in the United States and many other countries by fax or mail within days. Full-text articles from hundreds of journals are also available through the TexShare statewide database for a small charge.

The Library also houses over 12,000 rare books or other materials on Texas, the Southwest, Mark Twain, Gertrude Stein, the Civil War, Library Science, Criminal Justice and other topics in the Thomason Room. The recently restored Peabody Memorial Library contains the University Archives and SHSU Collection of faculty monographic publications.

A Learning Assistance Center opened in 1991 on the first floor of the library. The Center provides computer assisted learning, educational materials and tutoring services that will help students to pass the TASP (Texas Academic Skills Performance) test. Focusing on reading, writing and mathematics skills, the TASP must be passed by all students before they enroll in courses beyond the sophomore level.

A number of guides and bibliographies have been developed by library faculty and staff to assist library users in utilizing library material and services. Study carrels, electric coin-operated typewriters, and a modern copy center with several photocopiers and a public fax machine are available also. A lounge area furnished with soft drink and snack vending machines is also available.

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