Major service functions are located on the main floor (level 3) of the library. The reference area houses an extensive collection of encyclopedias, dictionaries, bibliographies, directories, indices and abstracts brought together to facilitate the finding of specific information. Access to current information contained in reports and journals is identified through the use of a CD-ROM computer network. Fifteen computer workstations provide users with electronic access to databases covering such fields as education, psychology, sociology, biology, forestry, environmental science, recreation and wildlife management, languages and literature. At the reference/information desk, librarians offer personal assistance and guidance in the use of the collections. Other functions on the main floor include book circulation, the reserve book room, microforms, newspapers and interlibrary loan. The library maintains an active interlibrary loan program for students and faculty through affiliation and liaison with major library networks and individual research libraries, both in this country and abroad. In addition to the main University library, separate collections are hosed in the Journalism and Law Schools.
Government documents, maps, archives and special collections are housed together on the first floor of the main library. Since 1965, the library has been the regional depository for the state and receives all U.S. government publications available to depository libraries. Significant holdings of Montana history are found in archives and special collections. Represented are rare books, pamphlets, papers, manuscripts and photographs. These reflect important literary and political figures, as well as business and industry, in Montana. The Montana state documents collection contains those books and periodicals issued by state agencies.
Some of the special features of the library include small study rooms, faculty and student seminar rooms, private study carrels, a specially equipped room for the visually handicapped, rooms for typing and viewing microforms, as well as facilities for rapid photocopying of materials. At the request of the faculty, selected titles from the book collection are placed on short-term loan in the reserve book room for required or recommended reading in certain courses.
The library provides orientation programs designed to acquaint students with general and specific subject oriented resources. Requests for such services may be arranged through the library office. Regular, interim, and holiday hours are permanently posted at the library.
Instructional Media Services, a division of the Mansfield Library, is a media library and production center located on the first floor of the Social Science Building. The collection of 90,000 items is available to the students, faculty, and staff of the University of Montana. The film/video library serves non-UM constituentcies on a rental basis. IMS incorporates viewing and listening facilities for all standard media formats, including video discs and tapes, CDs, sound casettes and discs, maps, slides, art prints, interactive multimedia and downlink videoconferencing. Music scores and music reference works are available also at IMS for convenient use by listeners. All nonprint items are circulated as library materials. Audiovisual equipment is loaned to both students and faculty to facilitate the use of nonprint materials in connection with academic pursuits.
IMS offers, on campus, laser color copying from slides, negatives, and color originals, a complete photographic production, presentation graphics, and film processing service and assistance in developing creative instructional aids such as color computer generated graphics from statistical data text files, rough sketches, video images to overhead transparencies, paper copy for reports, or high resolution slides. Text, graphic, and slide scanning is available. Other production services include audio and video recording, editing, and duplication, as well as general assistance with systems design. Print and poster mounting, plastic lamination, and shrink-wrapping are available.
U 100 Library Use Instruction 2 cr. Introduction to effective use of basic library resources, emphasizing research strategies for writing term papers or other uses.
Associate Professors
Barry Brown, M.I.L.S., University of Michigan, 1989 (Science Librarian)
Kathryn E. Higgins, M.S.L.S., University of Southern California, 1971 (Assistant Catalog Librarian)
Coburn R. Johnson, M.A., University of Denver, 1972 (Assistant Catalog Librarian)
Adelaine S. Midgett, B.A., The University of Montana, 1933 (Catalog Librarian Emeritus)
Susan M. Mueller, M.L.S., Emporia State University, 1992 (Director of Technical Services)
Christopher Mullin, M.A., University of Washington, 1969 (Special Collections Librarian)
Assistant Professors
Rita Nelson, B.A., The University of Montana (Assistant Acquisitions Librarian Emeritus)
Harriett Ranney, M.L.S., Drexel University, 1992 (Acting Humanities Librarian)