Libraries

The Elmer E. Rasmuson Library, with more than 1.75 million volumes, is the largest library in the state. Library faculty and staff help students conduct library research using UAF online and print databases and collections.

The library offers extensive reference and instructional services to students. The library information and research course, LS 101, is part of the core curriculum and provides students with an introduction to effective methods of identifying, locating and evaluating information resources.

Online catalogs and databases provide access to UAF library resources, UA system libraries and to libraries nationwide. Rasmuson Library’s website gives users access to more than 150 periodical indexes with broad coverage in the sciences, humanities and social sciences, management and engineering. Online indexes and collections also link to the full text of articles from more than 13,000 periodicals. Additional online resources include reference tools, electronic books, specialized sources for arctic and polar information and indexes to special formats such as government documents and dissertations. Online resources are accessible to UAF students from anywhere in the world with an Internet connection. Materials that are not owned by UAF libraries may be obtained through interlibrary loan services.

Special collections include the internationally recognized Alaska and Polar Regions collections, covering books, periodicals, archival documents, manuscripts, historical photographs, oral histories and maps. Rasmuson Library is a federal documents depository, receiving 40 percent of the materials published by the U.S. Government Printing Office.

Rasmuson Library has wireless networking and walk up ports throughout the building, as well as expanded study space, increased natural lighting, group study rooms and a 24-hour study space including an open-access computer lab.

The Rasmuson Library Division of Computing and Communications (DCC) is responsible for campus-wide academic computing, library computing, campus networking and UAF administrative systems. This includes e-mail, open-access computer labs, minicomputers used for academic computing and connection of computers to the campus network. DCC provides consulting, training seminars, documentation, programming support and access to public domain software for UAF students, faculty and staff.

The BioSciences Library, in the Arctic Health Research Building on the UAF West Ridge, is a branch of the Rasmuson Library. It provides substantial resources in the life sciences. The Biosciences Library offers on-site and remote access to numerous catalogs, indexes and full-text journals as well as reference, interlibrary loan and electronic document delivery services.

For Rasmuson Library information, telephone (907) 474-7224, e-mail fydir@uaf.edu, or visit online at www.uaf.edu/library/. For BioSciences Library information, telephone (907) 474-7442, e-mail fybmlib@uaf.edu, or visit online at www.uaf.edu/library/biosciences/.