The Arnold Bernhard Library offers a variety of different resources. From the large collection of printed books to its databases, there are many informational tools offered to suit the researching needs of each student.
There are more than 578,000 electronic books and 150,000 print volumes of books and journals in the Arnold Bernhard Library, Interim University Librarian Robert Joven said.
“When students are around from September through May, our electronic books are used much more heavily than print,” Joven said.
The university library also offers a wide spectrum of databases for students researching a number of different topics. There are 101 databases available for this purpose. Of those 101 databases, there are five used more heavily: Proquest, Cinahl, PsycInfo, JSTOR and Academic One File, Joven said.
Even with these resources, some students simply find solace in silence.
“I come here usually for a quiet place to sit and do homework [though] the library is pretty resourceful,” sophomore psychology major Caitlin Driver said.
She admits that she does not check out books too often.
“I’m never really assigned something that I need to check out a book,” she said. “I use the computers to print things off, and I think the databases work well.”
The librarians try to accommodate the needs of students.
“We always check first to see if the books are available electronically,” Joven said. “We don’t have a lot of space in the library for materials now because we use most of our space for study areas.”
However, there are times that students seek hard copies of books. When these materials aren’t available, the librarians turn to the Interlibrary Loan service designed to find and loan these requested books to students, faculty and staff.
For the 2012-2013 academic year, there were 1,550 Interlibrary Loan borrowing transactions and 4059 Interlibrary Loan lending transactions, Joven said.
“These numbers illustrate that we are borrowing less and lending more, which reflects to the growing collection we have,” Joven said.
With this system and the statistics gathered from it, librarians can also determine which books require investment. Those that are requested on popular demand are usually bought.
“We have sufficient funding at the moment to aid students in research,” Joven said.
For students who fear borrowing books in the event of fines for late returns, Joven assures that while fines are technically given for past due materials, the library is pretty “forgiving when it comes to that.” The library has not fined any students this year, according to Joven.
Still there are students who don’t know all the resources the library has available.
“I’m not aware of all the resources offered in the library, but I am happy with the resources that I do know about,” sophomore history major Alea Simons said.
She reveals that she visits the library at least twice a week but had to learn about its resources elsewhere.
“I think [the librarians] should tell us more about [the library],” she said. “I had to find out what’s here from teachers.”
Nonetheless, the library is always looking forward to adding new materials and resources for the convenience of all members of Quinnipiac’s ever-expanding community.
“There are always new resources here. We are always looking at new materials, new books, new journals that are coming out,” Joven said. “It’s a combination of the librarians doing our jobs with consideration of faculty and student feedback.”
