University Library

Click on any of the following links for information:

• Information Literacy
• The Collection
• Archives and Special Collections
• Teaching Materials Center
• Reference
• Access to Materials
• Faculty

Continuing Education and Distance Learning
Kresge Lobby
McDonnell-Douglas Board Room
Monsanto Room
Morton J. May Foundation Art Gallery
Novus Room

The University Library provides a comfortable place for students to browse, read, study, research, use a laptop on the wireless network, or just hang out in a pleasant environment. The information commons on the first floor contains computers and a variety of seating for groups and for individual study. Friendly librarians help students with simple questions and with more in-depth research. The informative library website at www.maryville.edu/library/ allows students to access the library, its catalog and databases.

The Library faculty is committed to ensuring that students develop the skills to become information literate in today’s society. Information literacy refers to the ability to recognize when information is needed, to access needed information through a variety of formats, to analyze and evaluate information, and to use information to solve a problem or make a decision. It is a set of skills which will enable individuals to succeed throughout their academic, professional and personal lives. To achieve this goal, the reference librarians work with students one-on-one on individual assignments and teach formal class sessions related to library and information skills.

The collection of the University Library includes 154,217 volumes, 523,305 microform units, 10,596 audio–visual pieces and access to 34,921 full text serial titles and 38,376 electronic books. The Library collection is accessed through the library catalog, which is available through computers in the library or through the Internet. Each subject area of the library has been enhanced by the acquisition of databases and other reference materials available over the Internet. These databases often include articles in full text and are available to students and faculty using any personal computer with access to the Internet.

The Library maintains the archives of the University, which includes papers, photographs and memorabilia of the history of the University.

The Archives also include the personal papers and the books of Edward Dowling S.J., who was instrumental in forming Recovery, Inc., and the St. Louis chapter of Alcoholics Anonymous. Special Collections include antique bibles and other rare volumes.

The Teaching Materials Center is a special area of the Library for students in the School of Education. The Center includes the juvenile literature collection and the Pepper Coil Curriculum Collection.

Reference librarians and library staff are available to assist students who come to the library or who need research help from off-campus. They can provide help with answering factual questions, choosing or narrowing a topic, choosing which resources to use, locating books or articles within or outside of the library, using the World Wide Web and many electronic databases, and citing resources correctly for a term paper.

Through membership in a number of networks, the Library has access to materials beyond the scope of the Maryville collection. The Maryville University Library is a member of MOBIUS (Missouri Bibliographic Information User System), a consortium of 62 academic libraries in the state of Missouri. The online MOBIUS catalog is a “virtual collection” of all the MOBIUS libraries containing more than 18 million items. A Maryville patron (faculty, staff or student) can request books from the MOBIUS catalog and a daily courier system delivers them to the Maryville Library. Membership in MOBIUS also allows Maryville Library patrons to use their ID cards to check out books at other libraries in the MOBIUS consortium including most college and university libraries in St. Louis. For books which are not available in MOBIUS libraries, and for periodical articles not contained within Maryville’s collections or databases, the Library provides Interlibrary Loan service. Through its membership in the OCLC (Online Computer Library Center) network, the University Library can borrow materials from more than 7,500 libraries in the United States and around the world.