6. Libraries and Other Academic Resources
The University Libraries
The libraries of the University, one of the largest academic libraries in North America, include the University of Texas Libraries, the Center for American History, the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, and the Jamail Center for Legal Research: Tarlton Law Library. The libraries are open and information services are available to the University community and to visitors, including students and faculty members from other institutions.
The University of Texas Libraries
The University Libraries Web site, http://www.lib.utexas.edu/, offers a range of services and resources. Each year this site is visited more than a billion times by information seekers around the world.
Online Services
- Check the library catalog for a listing of onsite and electronic information resources
- Libraries hours information. Most circulation desks close fifteen minutes before the library closes.
- Access materials placed on electronic reserves by a faculty member for a class/
- Renew an item or recall an item loaned to another borrower
- Ask a librarian: Use e-mail or instant messaging to obtain assistance from a librarian
- Request books, photocopies of articles, and other material not owned by the University libraries from another library in the United States or abroad
- Request that the University libraries purchase an item it does not currently own
- Ask for an item in remote storage to be delivered to another library
- View jobs available in the University libraries
Online Resources
Users may access millions of pages of specially licensed scholarly information, including the full text of articles and illustrations from thousands of journals and the full text of about eighty thousand books in electronic format. They may search hundreds of indexes and view the world's largest and most heavily used online map collection.
Subject specialists are responsible for developing the extensive collections that make up the University Libraries. Users who have questions about resources or need research assistance are encouraged to consult one of the subject specialists.
On-site Services and Resources
The University of Texas Libraries has twelve separate libraries on the Austin campus and one at the Marine Science Institute in Port Aransas. Each offers a range of services and specialized resources.
Library classes and tours. The University Libraries offers a variety of classes on how to use the library catalog and how to access and evaluate information, as well as advanced classes covering databases and other electronic and on-site materials in specific subject areas. Virtual and on-site tours are also offered.
Information and research help. Staff members are available in all libraries to help users find information.
Computing facilities. Computing facilities available to UT Austin students, faculty members, and staff members are located in all libraries. The Perry-Castañeda Library, the Flawn Academic Center, and the science libraries offer the largest number of available workstations.
Laptops are available for checkout at the Perry-Castañeda Library and the Fine Arts Library. Laptop checkout is available to all University students, faculty members, and staff members; a current UT ID is required. Ethernet laptop connections are available to those with UT EIDs in the Perry-Castañeda Library and the Engineering Library.
UTNet Wireless Access is available to students, faculty members, and staff members throughout the Chemistry, Classics, Engineering, Fine Arts, Physics Mathematics Astronomy, Public Affairs, and Law Libraries, and in selected areas of the Architecture and Planning, Fine Arts, Geology, Life Science, and Perry-Castañeda Libraries and the Ransom Center.
Copying and printing facilities. Photocopiers and computer printers in the libraries require a copy card. Users may purchase new copy cards from card dispensers located in campus libraries or from Library Copier Services in the Perry-Castañeda Library. The dispensers can also be used to add value to the copy cards. They accept $1, $5, $10, and $20 bills to add value to current cards, but only $1 bills for the purchase of new cards. Most dispensers accept credit cards. They do not accept debit cards and do not make change.
Individual and group study areas. All libraries offer individual study spaces. Many also offer group study rooms, designated collaborative study areas, or closed studies or carrels. Group study rooms in the Fine Arts and Perry-Castañeda Libraries and the Benson Latin American Collection may be reserved online.
Libraries
Perry-Castañeda Library. This six-level open stack library contains more than three million volumes, computers for public use, a coffee shop, and enclosed studies as well as group study areas.
This main library of the University serves most subject areas, with emphasis on the humanities, the social sciences, business, education, nursing, social work, and European, East European, Asian, Middle Eastern, Hebraic, and Judaic studies. Special materials include United States and United Nations official documents, current journals, and newspapers. Reference and information help is provided in the lobby area. Library users are also encouraged to make appointments with subject specialists in their areas to discuss information needs. A list of subject specialists, with contact information and office locations, is published online. Service units in the library include Circulation and Reserves Services, Courtesy Borrower Services, Library Copier Services, and Interlibrary Services. The Office of the Vice Provost and Director of the University Libraries and the University Libraries administrative staff are also housed in the Perry-Castañeda Library.
Audio Visual Library. The Audio Visual Library, located on the third floor of the Flawn Academic Center, offers documentary and feature films, including popular movies, foreign films, Academy Award winners, film festival winners, and more for checkout or to view in a nearby viewing room or carrel. UT Austin students, faculty and staff members, and courtesy borrowers may also check out digital cameras, camcorders, and boom boxes for three days. Cassette players may be checked out for use in the listening carrels.
Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection. The Benson Collection, an internationally recognized resource for research in Latin American studies and United States Latino studies, provides access to materials on Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean, and the Hispanic presence in the United States. The Benson Collection also contains holdings related to areas of the United States that were part of the Spanish Empire or Mexico, and to the United States– Mexico borderlands. A comprehensive collecting policy includes all of Latin America, with special focus on Mexico, Brazil, and the countries of the Río de la Plata. Current publications and essential retrospective materials are collected from all parts of the world, in any language, and dating from the fifteenth century to the present. The Benson Collection contains more than a million volumes of books, journals, and pamphlets, in addition to extensive collections of manuscripts, maps, newspapers, photographs, microfilm, and recordings.
The Mexican American Library Program at the Benson Collection was created in 1974 to strengthen and develop Mexican American and Latino materials and research sources. Resources include archives, photographs, printed and audiovisual materials, and online databases documenting the cultural, economic, and political impact of the Latino presence in the United States.
Science libraries. Including the Mallet Chemistry Library, the McKinney Engineering Library, the Walter Geology Library, the Life Science Library, and the Kuehne Physics Mathematics Astronomy Library, these libraries offer access to the Science-Technology-Electronic Information Center located in the McKinney Engineering Library. An additional library, the Marine Science Library, is located at the Marine Science Institute in Port Aransas.
Fine arts and architecture libraries. The Fine Arts Library, located in the Doty Fine Arts Building, contains collections that support learning and research in art, music, theatre, and dance. The collections include a variety of formats, including books, journals, musical scores, plays, CDs, and DVDs. Learning and research in architecture, interior design, urban planning, landscape architecture, and related disciplines are supported by the Architecture and Planning Library and, within it, the extensive collection of architectural drawings and other records in the Alexander Architectural Archive.
Other units. Other units of the University Libraries include the Classics Library and the Edie and Lew Wasserman Public Affairs Library, located in the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs. The Collections Deposit Library is a limited-access facility that houses a number of specialized collections.
Information for Borrowers
Loan periods. Undergraduates and courtesy borrowers may borrow most library materials for twenty-eight days. All other holders of University ID cards may borrow most materials for one semester.
A borrower may place a recall request online for a book checked out to another borrower. When the recalled item is returned, the requestor is notified and the item is held for seven days.
Borrower responsibilities. Borrowers are responsible for maintaining correct records of their identification numbers and mailing addresses with the University and for obtaining corrected borrower cards in case of error or a change in data. Borrowers are responsible for the return of items checked out to them until they are returned. The University Libraries is not responsible for notifying borrowers that materials are overdue.
Fines and fees for overdue materials. Borrowers are fined for failing to return library materials by the date they are due. Fines vary depending on the loan period of the material; detailed information about charges for overdue and lost materials is published online.
Charges for lost or damaged materials. Borrowers are charged for lost and damaged items. Charges include the cost of replacing a lost item or a damaged item that cannot be repaired; a processing fee of $25 when an item is reported lost or is presumed by the University Libraries to be lost; and a rebinding or repair charge of $25 if a damaged item can be repaired.
Library cards for non-University borrowers. Libraries are open to the public for use of materials. Adult Texas residents who are not members of the University community may borrow materials for home use by purchasing a courtesy borrower card at the Courtesy Borrower Services Desk at the Perry-Castañeda Library, entrance level. A photo ID and proof of Texas residence are required at the time of purchase. The fee may be waived for current members of the Texas Exes, for users who present valid TexShare cards from libraries participating in the TexShare Card Program, and for other users included in reciprocal borrowing agreements in which the University Libraries participates. Cards are valid for the period of enrollment, membership, or appointment, not to exceed one year.
Center for American History
The Center for American History is a special collections library, archive, and museum that facilitates research and sponsors programs on the historical development of the United States. The center supports research and education by acquiring and preserving research collections and making them accessible and by sponsoring exhibitions, conferences, fellowships, and grant-funded initiatives.
The Center for American History houses more than 75,000 linear feet of archives and manuscripts, 170,000 volumes, thirty-six thousand maps, fifty-five hundred historic newspaper titles, three million photographs, and extensive collections of broadsides, recorded music, oral history, and ephemera documenting the history of the United States. Research collection strengths are the history of the State of Texas, the South, the Southwest, and the Rocky Mountain West, congressional history, media history, and other specific national topics.
The center's divisions are the Research and Collections Division in Sid Richardson Hall on the University campus in Austin; the Studies in Texas History Division, also in Sid Richardson Hall, which supports the work of the Texas State Historical Association; the Sam Rayburn Library and Museum, in Bonham; Winedale, a complex of historic structures and modern facilities located near Round Top; and the John Nance Garner Museum in Uvalde.
Specific holdings include an 1849 daguerreotype of the Alamo, the earliest datable photograph taken in Texas; more than thirty-five hundred individual collections of personal papers and official records of individuals, families, groups, and businesses significant to the history of Texas, such as the papers of Stephen F. Austin, Lorenzo de Zavala, and Sam Houston; the Natchez Trace Collection, more than four hundred feet of printed and manuscript records documenting life and culture in the lower Mississippi River Valley from 1790 to 1900; the papers of more than fifty former and present members of the Texas congressional delegation; the Walter Cronkite Papers; the James Farmer Papers; the ExxonMobil Historical Collection; and the photographic archives of photojournalists Flip Schulke, David Hume Kennerly, Dirck Halstead, Diana Walker, Wally McNamee, and P. F. Bentley.
The center's James Stephen Hogg Reading Room, located in Sid Richardson Hall, is open from Monday through Friday, 10:00 am to 5:00 pm, and Saturday, 9:00 am to 2:00 pm. A reference staff is available to guide access to collections, and bibliographic descriptions of all center books and newspapers, as well as many archival collections, are included in UTNetCAT. Holdings are stored in closed stacks and must be used on site. Many center collections are stored off-site and require forty-eight hours notice for retrieval for use at the center. In addition, the sound and film collections are available for use by appointment only. For more information, call (512) 495-4515, or visit the Center for American History Web site.
Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center
The Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center is one of the world's foremost institutions for literary and cultural research. It offers resources in a number of disciplines and periods, but its principal strength is in its collections of twentieth-century British, American, and French literature. These collections contain not only rare editions but also prepublication materials, including authors' original notes, revised manuscripts, corrected galley proofs and page proofs, as well as letters and other personal and professional documents. Important collections exist also in photography, performing arts, and film. The center houses about a million books, thirty million manuscripts, five million photographs, and more than one hundred thousand works of art.
Book collections include the libraries of James Joyce and Evelyn Waugh, the Wolff Collection of Nineteenth-Century Fiction, the VanderPoel Collection of Charles Dickens, three Shakespeare First Folios, and the Pforzheimer Collection of English Literature, 1475–1700. The Ransom Center's most valuable book is the Gutenberg Bible. Writers particularly well represented in the center's manuscript collections include Graham Greene, Lillian Hellman, D. H. Lawrence, Norman Mailer, Carson McCullers, Anne Sexton, George Bernard Shaw, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Tom Stoppard, and Tennessee Williams.
The Gernsheim History of Photography Collection includes the works of more than twelve hundred photographers and the first photograph ever taken. Large collections of theatrical designs, film manuscripts, and other materials are found in the Norman Bel Geddes collection, the David O. Selznick collection, and the Gloria Swanson archive.
Art collections include drawings, prints, and paintings of and by English, American, and French writers, including E. E. Cummings, D. H. Lawrence, and Jean Cocteau, as well as works of art by Frida Kahlo, Eric Gill, Georges Rouault, and others.
Music collections include opera librettos from 1600 to 1920; manuscript scores of French composers Ravel, Roussel, Dukas, and Debussy; the archives of American composer Paul Bowles; and the collection of jazz historian Ross Russell.
The Ransom Center invites use by scholars engaged in research in the humanities. University faculty members, staff members, and students are eligible to use the collections, as are other researchers. The Ransom Center is a noncirculating library. Researchers wishing to consult the collections must present a photo ID, complete an application form, and agree to abide by the Ransom Center's rules and regulations.
Ransom Center books and many archival materials are represented in the online catalog of the University Libraries. Access to manuscript collections is provided through the manuscripts catalog or online finding aids. Photography, film, performing arts, and art materials are partially represented in online finding aids, but users should also consult the appropriate curator to locate materials in these areas.
Patrons may access Ransom Center materials in the second-floor Reading and Viewing Rooms. The world's first photograph, taken in 1826, and the Gutenberg Bible, the first book printed with movable type, are on display in the center's lobby, and the first-floor galleries feature rotating exhibitions of items from the literary, photographic, and art collections.
Hours of operation are available through the Ransom Center's Web site or by calling (512) 471-8944.
Joseph D. Jamail Center for Legal Research: Tarlton Law Library
The Tarlton Law Library supports the research and curricular needs of the faculty and students of the School of Law, as well as the research needs of the University community, members of the bar, and the public.
With more than one million volumes, the Tarlton library is one of the largest academic law libraries in the country. In addition to a comprehensive collection of primary and secondary legal materials, the library has a broad interdisciplinary collection from the social sciences and humanities. Special collections include extensive foreign and international law resources, more than one million pieces of microform materials in a media collection, the papers of former United States Supreme Court Justice Tom Clark, feature films and fiction related to law and popular culture, and, in the library's Gavel Room, a special collection of recent winners of the American Bar Association's prestigious Silver Gavel Award. The library is a depository for United States, European Union, and Canadian government documents.
In addition to printed matter, the library offers law students access to LEXIS and WESTLAW, the major online computer-assisted legal research services. The library also provides access to a variety of legal and nonlegal electronic databases and information services. The library's Computer Learning Center provides law students a networked environment of eighty IBM-compatible personal computers with word processing, legal research applications, and laser printers. Students also have access to a wireless network for personal laptop computers. The Tarlton Law Library Web site offers a number of unique resources, including a searchable database of the tables of contents from recent issues of law reviews.
As a member of the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC), the library contributes data to WorldCat. The library is also a member of ShareLaw, a consortium of seven of the nation's largest academic law libraries. Through these networks, the library has access to the collections of other major research libraries throughout the country. The library's own online public access catalog, TALLONS, provides immediate access to all of the collection. TALLONS offers users a variety of search strategies and provides information on the location of material, material being ordered for the collection, latest receipt information for serials, and circulation status of all material. Links to thousands of online resources are available through the catalog. TALLONS may also be used in conjunction with the University Libraries online catalog of the holdings of the various libraries on campus.
More than six hundred paintings, other objets d'art, prints, documents, antique quilts, rugs, and pieces of furniture from the Elton M. Hyder Jr. and Martha Rowan Hyder Collection enhance the ambience of the library and create a culturally enriching environment for library patrons and staff members.
Because legal research can be technically demanding, members of the library's public services staff provide individual and classroom instruction in the use of the library's materials.
Other Libraries in Austin
The Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum, located on the eastern edge of the campus, is operated by the National Archives and Records Administration. Not part of the University library system, this library is a rich resource for scholars studying the twentieth century. Faculty members and students also have access to other public and private libraries in the Austin area, including several that focus on special areas of interest.
The University of Texas McDonald Observatory at Mount Locke
The McDonald Observatory, constructed from the proceeds of a bequest by W. J. McDonald in 1929, was originally operated jointly by the University of Texas and the University of Chicago. Today the observatory is maintained and administered by the University of Texas at Austin. Located on Mount Locke in the Davis Mountains at an altitude of 6,800 feet, the observatory sits on 650 acres of land, 400 acres donated by the owners of the Fowlkes and McIvor ranches and 250 purchased from the Eppenauer ranch.
The 2.1-meter reflector was installed in March 1939, and the observatory was formally dedicated on May 5, 1939. For some years the 2.1-meter reflector was the second largest telescope in the world, and it is still among the world's major telescopes. A 0.9-meter reflector built primarily for stellar photoelectric photometry was installed in January 1957.
The development of the observatory and of the 2.1-meter reflector was largely the work of Otto Struve, the first director of Yerkes and McDonald Observatories, and one of the outstanding scientists of his generation. In recognition of his contributions, the 2.1-meter reflector was officially designated "The Otto Struve Reflector of the W. J. McDonald Observatory" in an international dedicatory symposium in May 1966.
Supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the University of Texas, and assisted by the National Science Foundation, a 2.7-meter telescope began operation in early 1969 as the third largest telescope in the world. That telescope has been named the Harlan J. Smith Telescope in honor of the first Texas director of McDonald Observatory. Improved supporting facilities and a 0.8-meter telescope were constructed in the 1970s. A partnership with the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, provides access to the 10.4-meter parabolic reflector there.
In collaboration with the Pennsylvania State University, Stanford University, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, and Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, the University of Texas at Austin operates a 9.2-meter telescope on Mount Fowlkes at the McDonald Observatory. This telescope, the William P. Hobby–Robert E. Eberly Telescope, has the largest primary mirror of any telescope in the world. The George T. Abell Gallery offers a view of the telescope to the public.
McDonald Observatory produces the daily astronomy radio program StarDate, which airs on 334 radio stations in the United States and Canada and is heard by three million people each week. The Spanish-language edition, Universo, is broadcast on more than 140 stations. Sternzeit airs in Germany on public radio. The observatory also publishes StarDate magazine.
The Frank N. Bash Visitors Center at McDonald Observatory, located at the base of Mount Locke, includes a theatre, a science museum with interactive exhibits, StarDate Café, and a gift shop. The center is open from 10:00 am to 5:30 pm daily except Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Day. Solar viewing sessions are conducted daily at 11:00 am and 2:00 pm with guided tours of the research areas immediately following. Daytime passes are $8 for adults, $7 for children, and $30 for families. Every Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday night, the Visitors Center hosts "Star Parties," during which visitors have the opportunity to view the planets, moon, galaxies, and other celestial objects through large telescopes at the center's Public Observatory. Star Party admission is $10 for adults, $8 for children, and $40 for families. A combined daytime and Star Party pass costs $15 for adults, $12 for children, and $60 for families. More information about visiting the observatory may be obtained from the Frank N. Bash Visitors Center at McDonald Observatory, HC 75 Box 1337-VC, Fort Davis TX 79734, (432) 426-3640, or at the McDonald Observatory Web site. A recorded message giving seasonal times is available at (877) 984-7827.
Texas Natural Science Center
The Texas Natural Science Center is dedicated to encouraging awareness and appreciation of the interplay of biological, geological, and environmental forces as they affect the Earth.
The center's exhibits and public programs are based on its world-renowned research collections of 5.7 million specimens in the disciplines of paleontology, geology, herpetology, ichthyology, entomology, and diatomology. Most specimens in the collections are from Texas, and many are unique and irreplaceable. The center's four divisions are the Texas Memorial Museum, Vertebrate Paleontology Laboratory, Nonvertebrate Paleontology Laboratory, and Texas Natural History Collections.
The public aspect of the center is the Texas Memorial Museum, located on the University campus at 2400 Trinity Street. All of the museum's exhibits and public programs are based on the center's research collections. The museum was constructed with state and federal funds, contributions, and proceeds from the sale of Texas Centennial coins sponsored by the American Legion. It was opened to the public January 15, 1939. In 1959, by legislative enactment, it became a division of the University of Texas.
The museum is open every day except major holidays, from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm weekdays, from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm Saturday, and from 1:00 to 5:00 pm Sunday. Admission is free.
Known worldwide for its exhibits of fossil vertebrates, the museum displays examples of the world-famous dinosaur footprints originally from Glen Rose, Texas. Other fossils on display are a thirty-five-foot Cretaceous mosasaur, a pterosaur with a forty-foot wingspan, reptiles and amphibians from the Permian period of the Paleozoic era, and remains of Ice Age mammals.
The first-floor Hall of Geology features displays of dinosaurs and fossil animals, rocks, and minerals, as well as an on-site working paleontologist preparing fossil specimens and answering questions from visitors. The second floor showcases some of the museum's most prized and unusual specimens. The third floor features the contemporary native fauna of Texas, including many of the state's reptiles, birds, and mammals. The fourth floor currently displays the Explore Evolution exhibit, which features the work of scientists who are making leading discoveries about the evolution of life.
The center's research facilities, located at the Pickle Research Campus, are the Vertebrate Paleontology Laboratory, ranked ninth in the nation; the Nonvertebrate Paleontology Laboratory, sixth largest in the United States; and the Texas Natural History Collections.
The Vertebrate Paleontology Laboratory contains approximately 250,000 cataloged specimens and perhaps three times that number of uncataloged specimens; the Nonvertebrate Paleontology and Paleobotany collections contain more than 4,000,000 specimens of nonvertebrate fossils, rocks, and minerals, including fossils from more than 95 percent of Texas counties; and the Texas Natural History Collections contain well over a million specimens comprising a diverse representation of living and past Texas natural history. These collections form the basis of some of the most significant research at the University, providing specimens for undergraduate and graduate courses, faculty research, and professional researchers from around the world. The Vertebrate Paleontology Laboratory supports one of the largest professional vertebrate paleontology instruction programs in the world.
The center is a research unit of the College of Natural Sciences and the home of the college's ichthyology, herpetology, and paleontology collections.