Library System

The Library System provides support for graduate studies and research through collections in the W.E.B. Du Bois Library, Science and Engineering Library, the Image Collection Library, Music Reserve Lab, and through extensive electronic collections available 24 hours a day, seven days a week at www.library.umass.edu.

The Du Bois Library is open around the clock from 11 a.m. on Sundays to 9 p.m. on Fridays and from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturdays. It houses materials in the social sciences and the humanities, as well as the Government Documents, East Asian, Map, and Law Collections, and Special Collections and University Archives, where the Papers of W.E.B. Du Bois are located.

The Science and Engineering Library, with collections focused on mathematics, the natural and physical sciences, and engineering, is located in the Lederle Graduate Research Center, Lowrise.  The Library has been renovated and now offers group study rooms, individual computer workstations, tables with power outlets, and comfortable seating.

Du Bois Library has computer workstations, including PCs and Macs, loaner laptops, and hundreds of ports for laptop access. Students can get garage tickets validated for an hour’s worth of parking at the Learning Commons Information Desk.  The Learning Commons (www.library.umass.edu/learningcommons/) on the Lower Level of the Du Bois Library brings together library, technology, and other campus services in an environment that fosters informal, collaborative work and social interaction. In addition to personal computers, scanners, printers, group study rooms, flexible work stations, and comfortable furniture, the Learning Commons offers academic advising, study abroad advising, technical support, peer tutoring, writing assistance, reference and research assistance, assistive technologies for people with disabilities, information desks, and a café. 

The Microform Viewing Room in the Learning Commons has microfilm and microfiche readers, scanners, and printers, including ScanPro 2000, a next generation microform machine that creates a scan or a print-out of a selected area within seconds.  Scans from the machine can be loaded onto a flash drive or emailed directly from the workstation to a personal email account.

At the Circulation/Reserves service desk on the Lower Level of the Du Bois Library, students can check out books, course reserve materials, laptops, multimedia equipment, public locker keys and more at this convenient combined service point. 

The Procrastination Station café on the entrance floor of the Du Bois Library serves espresso, hot and cold sandwiches, salads, self-serve items, and soups.  The Map Collection is located on Floor 2.  The second and third floors have designated quiet study areas.  A reading room with current issues of popular magazines and newspapers is on Floor 5.  The Music and Media Collection is located on Floor 6 with multimedia viewing areas, audio listening stations with LP turntables, CD players and cassette players, a browsable DVD collection, music monuments and scores, comfortable seating and computer stations with access to printers.  OIT computer labs are located on Floor 7 and 16.  The Learning Resource Center is on Floor 10.  The best view is considered to be on Floor 23.  Special Collections and University Archives is located on Floor 25.

Wireless connectivity is available throughout Du Bois and the Science and Engineering Library. To access this network, laptops or other computing devices must be wireless-capable and configured for the UMass connection.

The system is the largest public academic research library in Massachusetts. Present holdings include close to 4 million volumes, providing access to nearly 80,000 online journals, over 700,000 e-books, and more than 200 databases.  A current UCard, the university photographic I.D., serves as a library card.

The Libraries offer a comprehensive suite of services aimed at delivering information to users. Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery Services provides fast and seamless delivery of information found worldwide to any place, at any time.

UMass Amherst WorldCat provides access to finding books, journals, articles, media, maps and more in libraries and collections locally and around the world.  It is available as the default search box on the Libraries home page (http://www.library.umass.edu/).  Through the catalog, students can search all libraries simultaneously, focus searches on specific research areas, limit searches to a particular collection or format (e.g., book, CD, journal), and perform foreign language searches. Personal accounts can be set up to receive email notifications of new arrivals in designated subject areas and to review personal searches and borrowing histories.

The Library is a depository for United States government publications and Massachusetts state government publications. It is also an official U.S. Patent and Trademark Depository Library. Public computers are available for online patent searching in the Science and Engineering Library. The Image Collection Library, in Bartlett Hall, provides images for faculty and student use.

Research and Instructional Services librarians provide general information and specialized reference assistance in person, over the Internet, by telephone, text, and IM (www.library.umass.edu/ask).  Subject specialist librarians work closely with academic departments to meet their research needs.  Reference librarians also provide specialized course-related instruction and online research guides, and assist users with many specialized library services, including database searches, interlibrary loan, document delivery, the services available through the Library’s membership in various library consortia, and ScholarWorks, the Library’s repository. For a complete list of services for faculty and graduate students, visit www.library.umass.edu/services/for/faculty.html.