The Undergraduate Core Collection located across floors 2-3 in the Herman B Wells Library's West Tower originated in 1962 when materials were acquired from various used bookstores, gifts, and direct purchases to establish the Undergraduate Library collection. According to the collection development policy in place in the 1980s: "The Undergraduate Collection does not stand alone on the IU-Bloomington campus. It is part of a complex library system. Consequently, for purposes of collection development the UGL collection is considered in the context of its location and the relationship to the Research Collections and the campus libraries." The UGS Core Collection is a dynamic aspect of the central mission of the Learning Commons, addressing the more holistic curricular and co-curricular needs of undergraduate students (first- and second-year undergraduates in particular).
The Core Collection is small, less than 30,000 volumes, and materials are arranged for undergraduates’ ease of discovery. The loan period is short (typically equal to or less than 14 days) to keep materials circulating and readily available to a wider audience. Core Collection materials cannot be borrowed through interlibrary loan. The collection is reviewed annually, with resultant activities of withdrawal (when appropriate) or transferring little used materials to offsite storage or to other Libraries’ collections. The collection is geared toward immediate use of current, high-interest titles, and outdated, little-used material will be considered for removal. The Core Collection contains current titles and high-use materials central to the IU Bloomington undergraduate curriculum, and should be dynamic and responsive to the needs of a changing curriculum and student body.
The Browsing Collection is a small collection of circulating (predominantly) current popular fiction and non-fiction titles. The collection mainly comprises adult fiction in English (LGBTQ+ fiction, mysteries, new fiction, romances, science fiction, short stories, urban fiction, and westerns) as well as a selection of new and popular nonfiction.
The collection is located in the southeast corner of the Learning Commons (1st floor, West Tower). Materials in the collection circulate for 14 days at a time.
The Career Reference Collection is located on the 3rd floor of the Wells Library West Tower. The collection includes practice test books for graduate school entrance exams (GRE, MCAT, LSAT, GRE) and others (TOEFL), books on choosing a career and job hunt best practices (resume and cover letter writing, interviewing), directories for graduate schools and financial aid. CRC books can be checked out for 3 days with no renewals. – It is a small collection, easily browsed.
Other campus resources: