A General Description of the University Libraries

The University Libraries include the main Walter Clinton Jackson Library and the Harold Schiffman Music Library, a separate facility located in the Music Building. Jackson Library has the shelving capacity for more than one million books, an area of 220,174 square feet, and seating capacity for 950. The Harold Schiffman Music Library has approximately 10,000 square feet and seating space for 86. The Libraries offer a variety of resources and services to its users; information regarding them is available through the Libraries' web page. Orientation to the library and instruction in use of information resources are available.

Current library holdings number more than 1.2 million printed books, federal and state documents, and other material. The Libraries provide acccess to more that 110,000 newspapers, periodicals, and other serials, and more than 1.2 million ebooks. The Libraries also provide access to more than 750 databases which offer company information, statistics, legal documents, journal indexing, streaming audio and video and much more.

The buildings include quiet and group spaces, some with computers, plasma screens, and white boards. Jackson Library maintains a 24/5 study area during the fall and spring semesters.

Digital projects initiatives center on four focus areas--university history, local history, women's history, and the performing arts--and consist of photographs, newspapers, university publications, pamphlets, oral histories, and other archival material. More than 150,000 items have been created and placed online, many in collaboration with other area institutions, and over three terabytes of data are stored on the Libraries’ servers.

Special collections include historical physical education materials; cello music collections; the Randall Jarrell Collection; the Lois Lenski Collection; the Woman's Collection; collections devoted to history of dance, the book as an art form, and modern private presses; and a notable collection of rare books in several fields.

Jackson Library is a depository for the University archives and for material relating to the history of UNCG; it is also a selective depository for U.S. government documents, as well as a full depository for State documents.

In addition to its own book collections, the Libraries are able to borrow, by means of interlibrary loan, material from other libraries for faculty, students and staff. Through a cooperative lending agreement with the other sixteen campuses of the University of North Carolina system students may borrow books directly from the libraries of those institutions with their UNCG ID card. Faculty, staff and students may also check out materials from other academic libraries in the Piedmont area through the Triad Area Libraries Association agreement.

The University Libraries are dedicated to providing state-of-the-art information technology for use by its patrons. Over 300 computers provide access to the internet and a variety of software. Laptops and other technology, including cameras and video recorders, are available for checkout. The buildings provide wireless access for UNCG affiliated users and guests. In addition to the computers provided by the Libraries, ITS's Superlab offers an additional 125 computers within Jackson Library for use by current UNCG faculty, staff, and students.

Biographical sketch of Walter Clinton Jackson
Biographical sketch of Harold Schiffman