The University Libraries are the academic library system for Bowling Green State University and its regional campuses.

History

Establishment

The first library of the Bowling Green Normal College was established in 1914 in the basement of a nearby

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...

Church, with its first professional librarian hired in 1915. Also in 1915, the library was moved from its temporary location off campus to the third floor of University Hall.

McFall Center

In 1927 the library moved into its first dedicated building, The McFall Center. In the 1950s, the old library was expanded, and by 1961 it contained 330,000 items.

Jerome Library

Construction of a new library began in 1965. In 1982, the building was named in honor of William Travers Jerome III, who served as the sixth president of Bowling Green State University. In 2017 Jerome Library served about 450,000 people annually and held over two million items.

Jerome Library

The building, which state architect Carl E. Bentz designed, features unique non-objective

mural A mural is any piece of graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' is a Spani ...

s on the east and west facades of the library designed by Don Drumm. Drumm, an artist in residence during the 1960s, actively conceptualized and constructed the murals. First, Drumm outlined contemporary designs on the concrete. Construction crews then

sandblasted Sandblasting, sometimes known as abrasive blasting, is the operation of forcibly propelling a stream of abrasive material against a surface under high pressure to smooth a rough surface, roughen a smooth surface, shape a surface or remove su ...

the designs into the concrete. Drumm added shadow pins to the west mural to capture light and create shadows to complete the mural. The nine-level, 156,895 sq ft structure is between Memorial and East Halls. The William T. Jerome Library is open to the community. The library is a member of

OhioLINK The Ohio Library and Information Network (OhioLINK) is a consortium of Ohio's college and university libraries and the State Library of Ohio. Serving more than 800,000 students, faculty, and staff at 88 institutions with 117 libraries, OhioLINK ...

, a statewide library and information system that enables BGSU students, faculty, and staff to borrow books from other Ohio libraries and access many online research databases.

Learning Commons

The Learning Commons opened in the fall of 2011, consolidating the Study Skills Center, Writing Center, and Mathematics and Statistics Tutoring Center. It offers 13,565 square feet of study space, computers, and a tutorial center.

Specialized collections and branches

Government Documents (1st floor)

Bowling Green State University, which serves

Ohio's 5th Congressional district Ohio's 5th congressional district is in northwestern and north central Ohio and borders Michigan and Indiana. The district is currently represented by Republican Bob Latta. The district borders have changed somewhat from the previous redistrict ...

, became a federal depository in 1933. Librarians select 57% of the offered items, receiving approximately 400 documents monthly. This collection of 700,000 publications is rich in historical and current material, including the following materials: * Census of Population reports from 1790 to present * Foreign Relations of the United States * U.S. Treaties and International Agreements * U.S. Congressional Serial Set The collection emphasizes materials in business, civil rights, economics, education, environment, foreign relations, health, housing, justice, labor, presidential materials, small business, and social welfare. Additionally librarians select all congressional materials including hearings, reports, documents, floor debates, bills and public laws, and studies. The department became an Ohio depository in 1953 and received all agency publications from the state depository program. As a result, the collection includes agency publications such as reports, directories, pamphlets, leaflets, posters, newsletters, and journals; Judicial Branch materials including administrative opinions and the

Supreme Court of Ohio The Ohio Supreme Court, Officially known as The Supreme Court of the State of Ohio is the highest court in the U.S. state of Ohio, with final authority over interpretations of Ohio law and the Ohio Constitution. The court has seven members, a ...

opinions and decisions; and

Ohio General Assembly The Ohio General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Ohio. It consists of the 99-member Ohio House of Representatives and the 33-member Ohio Senate. Both houses of the General Assembly meet at the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus ...

materials, including the Laws of Ohio and the House and Senate Journals. In the early 1980s, selected material from the city of Bowling Green was added to the collection, including City Council Minutes, Mayor's Reports, the Bowling Green City Code of Ordinances, and the Annual Report of the Bowling Green Police Division. BGSU became a Canadian Government Documents Depository in October 1999. This collection focuses on business, environment,

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lakes ...

, Native Peoples, and social issues. It includes journals, reports, and cd-roms. The library also collects some of the essential statistical reports produced by

Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; french: Statistique Canada), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and cultur ...

.University Libraries Government Documents Collection
Retrieved 2010-01-20

Curriculum Resource Center

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Curriculum Resource Center (CRC)
supports the undergraduate and graduate teaching programs in the College of Education and Human Development and other BGSU education-related areas by maintaining a collection of high-quality preschool through grade twelve materials reflecting innovation in teaching practices and standards-based instruction. Materials held by the CRC comprise th

so named on March 30, 2001, in honor of Professor Povsic's significant, enduring, and distinctive contributions to the CRC, the University Libraries, and BGSU. The CRC is also home to th

Music Library and Bill Schurk Sound Archives

The Music Library and Bill Schurk Sound Archives, located on the third floor of Jerome Library, contains materials related to the study of music. Although the collection primarily supports the undergraduate and graduate programs in the College of Musical Arts, the Department of Popular Culture, and the Center for American Culture Studies, the resources of the library are available to all interested users. The Music Library contains more than 60,000 books and scores related to all aspects of the study of music. Studies ranging from biography to general histories of music, from theoretical treatises to studies of such diverse elements as

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...

, and band music are included in the collection. The score collection includes solos, orchestral studies, exercise books, and chamber music for ensembles from two to ten parts. The recordings collection, which circulates on a limited basis, contains more than 16,000 recordings of music from all periods of music history as well as ethnic music,

musical theatre Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, movemen ...

, and

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

. In addition, the Music Library maintains recital tapes from the College of Musical Arts dating from 1966. All masters' theses In addition, all documents written by graduate students in the College of Musical Arts are housed in the collection. The Music Library houses two special collections: The Bill Schurk Sound Archives and the Archives of the MidAmerican Center for Contemporary Music. The Bill Schurk Sound Archives considered the nation's premier collection of popular music sound recordings, contains more than 700,000 recordings representing all styles of popular music and all recorded formats. Established in 1967 for the scholarly study of popular music, the Bill Schurk Sound Archives serves campus patrons and researchers from around the world. Discographies, books, and periodicals related to popular music and the recording industry are also included in this collection. Established in 1987, the Archives of the MidAmerican Center for Contemporary Music contains music submitted to and performed at the College of Musical Arts' New Music and Art Festival. The collection currently contains more than 3800 contemporary music scores, many in manuscript.University Libraries Music Library & Bill Schurk Sound Archives
Retrieved 2010-01-22

Browne Popular Culture Library

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(BPCL), founded in 1969 and dedicated to the acquisition and preservation of research materials on American popular culture (post-1876), is the most comprehensive repository of its kind in the United States.University Libraries Browne Popular Culture Library
Retrieved 2010-01-22 The Browne Popular Culture Library holds more than 190,000 cataloged books. Popular fiction predominates, particularly novels in the romance, mystery-detective,

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...

, and western genres. This Library also contains extensive collections of late 19th- and 20th-century juvenile/young adult series fiction. Other major strengths of the Browne Popular Culture Library include materials documenting popular entertainment and the entertainment industry (e.g.,

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...

, and the

mass communications Mass communication is the process of imparting and exchanging information through mass media to large segments of the population. It is usually understood for relating to various forms of media, as its technologies are used for the dissemination o ...

industry), graphic arts, recreation and leisure, and popular religion. Non-fiction holdings also include books on the

occult The occult, in the broadest sense, is a category of esoteric supernatural beliefs and practices which generally fall outside the scope of religion and science, encompassing phenomena involving otherworldly agency, such as magic and mysticism a ...

and

supernatural Supernatural refers to phenomena or entities that are beyond the laws of nature. The term is derived from Medieval Latin , from Latin (above, beyond, or outside of) + (nature) Though the corollary term "nature", has had multiple meanings si ...

parapsychology Parapsychology is the study of alleged psychic phenomena (extrasensory perception, telepathy, precognition, clairvoyance, psychokinesis (also called telekinesis), and psychometry) and other paranormal claims, for example, those related to near ...

, manner and customs, etiquette and advice, arts and crafts, hobbies, games and amusements, sports, foodways and cookery, domestic arts, costume and dress, and humor. Users can also find popular reference and informational materials (self-help and how-to books, for example) in the library's collections. In addition to many rare hardcover and paperback books and magazines, the Browne Popular Culture Library houses archival and special collections, including literary manuscripts and movie and television scripts. Non-traditional library resources such as dime novels, story papers and nickel weeklies, pulp magazines, fanzines and other amateur publications,

comic books A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

and graphic novels, and posters, postcards, greeting cards, mail-order catalogs, and travel brochures, comprise some of the library's most unusual collections. There are approximately 85,000 comic books in the collection. The Browne Popular Culture Library also collects manuscripts to support and complement existing print collections.University Libraries About the Browne Popular Culture Library
Retrieved 2010-01-22 BPCL includes th

The Star Trek Collection includes Star Trek memorabilia given to the Popular Culture Library principally by Marie Wakefield but also contains items received from Sandra Springer and other miscellaneous sources. The collection consists of a wide range of materials including, but not limited to, books, journals, clothing items, models, posters, games, puzzles, greeting cards, playing and trading cards, and calendars.

Center for Archival Collections

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Center for Archival Collections
is an archives and manuscripts repository within the University Libraries at Bowling Green State University. The primary mission of the CAC is to actively acquire, preserve, and make accessible to researchers historical materials in Northwest Ohio. In addition, it houses the BGSU University Archives, the Historical Collections of the Great Lakes, a rare books collection, special collections, and the National Student Affairs Archives. The collection emphasizes local history, Great Lakes maritime history, women's history, the Civil War, education, and all aspects of northwest Ohio's social, cultural, economic, and industrial history.University Libraries Center for Archival Collections
Retrieved 2010-01-22

Historical Collections of the Great Lakes

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(HCGL) is part of the Center for Archival Collections at Bowling Green State University. Its purpose is to collect, preserve, and make historical materials documenting the Great Lakes region and connecting waterways available to scholars, students, and the public. The HCGL's collections include materials related to the commercial shipping,

shipbuilding Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and other floating vessels. It normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation that traces its roots to befor ...

, navigation,

maritime law Admiralty law or maritime law is a body of law that governs nautical issues and private maritime disputes. Admiralty law consists of both domestic law on maritime activities, and private international law governing the relationships between priva ...

, commercial fishing, shipwrecks, yachting, labor history, popular literature, freshwater ecology, maritime culture, and the history of Great Lakes ports. The types of materials include manuscripts, newspaper clippings, photographs, maps, vessel data sheets, maritime architectural drawings, and published materials.University Libraries Historical Collections of the Great Lakes
Retrieved 2010-01-22 In 2017 this collection received a large donation of materials from the

National Museum of the Great Lakes The National Museum of the Great Lakes is a museum in the Toledo Maritime Center, a heritage location on the banks of the Maumee River on the east side of Toledo, Ohio. Operated by the Great Lakes Historical Society, it celebrates the natural and ...

Northwest Ohio Regional Book Depository

The Northwest Ohio Regional Book Depository is a storage facility in Perrysburg, Ohio containing BGSU and

University of Toledo The University of Toledo (UToledo or UT) is a public research university in Toledo, Ohio. It is the northernmost campus of the University System of Ohio. The university also operates a Health Science campus, which includes the University of T ...

library materials. The building can hold up to 1.8 million items.

References

External links

Floors of Jerome Library
{{DEFAULTSORT:University Libraries At Bowling Green State University Libraries Libraries in Ohio Bowling Green State University Buildings and structures in Wood County, Ohio Library buildings completed in 1967