Library Collections

Education Curriculum Library (IL 224)
 -- Children’s and Young Adults Books

The Library supports the Education program by making available fiction and non-fiction appropriate for elementary and secondary students. Popular, classic, and award-winning books commonly used in school curriculums are available for checkout. This collection includes all Caldecott Medal books and many Newbery Medal books. Resources to assist teacher candidates in lesson planning and subject area curriculum are also housed in the Education Curriculum Library. The Education Curriculum Library is in the Deeann Griebel Student Success Center (IL 224) adjacent to the Education Department.

Government Documents — Federal and State of Minnesota (4th floor)

SMSU’s Library is part of the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP), which was established by Congress to ensure that the American public has access to its Government's information. The FDLP involves the acquisition, format conversion, and distribution of depository materials to libraries throughout the United States. The Library receives around 23% of all materials published by the Government Printing Office.
The Government Documents collection also includes many publications from the State of Minnesota, providing contemporary and historic data and descriptions of Minnesota’s people, places, and environment.
Materials in this collection including books, pamphlets, electronic resources, atlases, maps and posters, are searchable in the online catalog (OneSearch). The Government Documents collection is integrated into the circulating collection. Items are designated with a Government Documents sticker. 

Journal Collection (Main Floor)

The library maintains a print journal collection. These items are for in library use only. They are housed on the main floor in alphabetical/chronological order. 

Media – Current (4th floor) and Archived (3rd floor) 

Current media (videos, DVDs, CDs) refers to media that plays on technology familiar to most undergraduates and relates to SMSU’s educational mission. Archived media (e.g., reel-to-reel film) plays on technology that is not easily found in today’s marketplace. Patrons may check media items out or arrange to view/listen to them in the library. The Library does not guarantee working equipment for all forms of archived media and reserves the right to not lend materials that are deemed fragile, unique to SMSU, or historically valuable. 

Microfilm (5th floor)

Pre-Internet, libraries were able to save space by purchasing some materials on microfilm and microfiche. These clear plastic rolls have miniature copies of many publications that can be viewed on special machines, called readers. This collection of journals and newspapers and the readers to view them are on the 5th floor. 

Reference Collection (3rd Floor)

Examples of materials in the Reference Collection include encyclopedias, dictionaries, and almanacs. Since library patrons usually do not need more than a few pages from any of these books, this collection does not circulate.

Striegel Archives (5th floor - Open by appointment only)

Digital Archives -  Resources such as the student newspapers, campus news, and the alumni magazine are available for full-text searching. 

The Striegel Archives (named after emeritus librarian Mary Jane Striegel) houses materials considered significant enough to SMSU to merit a permanent place in the Library. These materials are available to researchers during regular Library hours by appointment.

The largest collection in the Archives documents the history of SMSU administration, classes and student body, including committee minutes, program reviews, playbills, and oral histories. The Library houses one copy of theses and action research projects submitted by SMSU graduate students in the Archives. When circulating copies are checked out or missing, the archived copies are available to be used on site.

To schedule an appointment to use materials in the archives, contact Pam Gladis (x6813) or the Research Help Desk (x6176). 

Southwest Regional History Center Collection (5th Floor)

This collection began in 1972 as a joint venture of the Minnesota Historical Society and members of the History Department of Southwest Minnesota State University. This public records repository was established to serve 15 counties in southwestern Minnesota and it one of eight regional research centers in the state of Minnesota. This collection does not circulate.  To schedule an appointment to use materials in the archives, contact Pam Gladis (507/537-6813).