Library Services

As much as the library is about the excellent collections we've put together to support your research, the library is about the equally excellent services we offer.

Library Collections and Locations

Most library materials are located in the general stacks and can easily be located using the library map. Below you can read about some of the collections available to you in the Reed Library and where to locate them within the library.

Administrative reports and documents

Non-class reserve items are housed behind the circulation desk as XA materials. 

Non-class reserve items may include administrative reports and documents and any other item placed in the library for community access.  For example, a copy of the Reed campus “Heritage Master Plan” is on reserve here.  These items circulate like other reserves and require a Reed I.D. for access.

Atlases & Maps

Find most atlases and maps useful for reference in the south reference room, on the right as you enter from the reference desk area. 

Reference atlases are shelved on the wall shelves in the corner and flat on the free-standing units in the north end of the south reference room.  All items show orange-colored call number labels.  These titles do not circulate.


Individual maps from all periods and sources are filed flat in the large drawers of the map case in the shelving island.  They are shelved by call numbers written on the bottom left-hand corners and should be treated with care, as most are quite fragile.  Maps are non-circulating.

Current Unbound Periodicals

The most current issues of all periodicals received by the library are held in the science reading room (science titles) and the south reference room (all others).

Current periodicals, consisting of newly-received issues held until they make up a volume, are housed in the south reference room (non-science) and in the science reading room (science) before being bound and sent to the south serial stacks (levels 1-4).  Periodicals do not circulate outside the library.

Government Documents

Government Documents comprise a wide variety of materials useful for research, such as statistics, population censuses, congressional records, and publications of the various branches of government.  They are housed downstairs from the reference area immediately to the left. 

Find out more about government documents.

IMC / Language Lab

The Instructional Media Center and Language Lab offer 27 computers for language practice as well as other equipment for listening to music or watching videos.  Many CDs and DVDs may be checked out.  IMC, on lower level 1 from the library lobby, is staffed long hours and has its own circulation desk. 

Find out more about the IMC.

Microforms

All microfilms and microfiches are housed in room L62 with reading and printing equipment.

The microform reading room contains long runs of many newspapers, government documents, subject collections, and individual titles on microfilm or microfiche.  Examples include the Times Literary Supplement, Newsweek, American Women’s Diaries, and The Federal Register.  Find microforms from the alphabetical listing at the end of the first row of cabinets.  Microform readers and printers are available to access these materials along with their instruction manuals.

New Books

Books recently received and processed over the last two weeks are placed on the New Books shelves at the back of the science reading room.  These books can circulate immediately.

See the list of new materials.

Pollock Room

Selected current newspapers and magazines are housed here, along with the Pollock Browsing Collection of light reading.   

One to six months of current issues of a selected number of newspapers and the last few months of a few major periodicals of interest are maintained in the Pollock Room.  These titles include:  The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Oregonian, Newsweek, Atlantic Monthly, and U.S. News & World Report.

The Pollock Browsing Collection contains light reading for your distraction and relaxation.  Heavy on mysteries, the collection also houses cookbooks, humor, popular science, travel, and nature books.
Comfortable chairs provide a quiet reserve for your morning news fix or a dip into lighter fare.

Reference

Encyclopedias, dictionaries, bibliographies, and other collections of data designated as reference materials live in the north and south reference rooms, straight ahead as you enter the library proper.

The many thousands of reference items gathered by the library are housed in the north and south reference rooms along with 15 computers, 3 printers, a color printer, a color copier, a 2-computer work station for viewing art, and the reference desk.  Reference materials are shelved by the Library of Congress classification scheme; A-Pn are housed in the north and Po-Z in the south rooms.  Reference materials are marked “Ref.” in the call number and do not circulate.

A small collection of the highest use reference materials, such as the MLA Style Manual, are housed behind the reference desk and must be requested from and returned to that location.

Special Collections

Special Collections includes archival materials, rare books, Reed-related titles, artists’ books, master theses, and other unusual collections.  Although non-circulating, holdings are easily accessible in Room L014 on Lower Level 2 from the lobby. 

Find out more about special collections.

Thesis Collection

The thesis tower, accessible from stairs in the north reference room, houses all second copies of theses written by Reed seniors before graduation.

Since 1964, two thesis copies have been required from all graduating seniors, and those copies fill the second floor of the library’s tower room.  Second copies of some earlier graduates also exist in this collection.  These stack copies may circulate and may be loaned through Interlibrary Loans to other researchers.  The complete holdings of theses are non-circulating and are shelved in Special Collections, where they may be consulted.