Washington and Lee University
The Washington and Lee University Library includes Leyburn Library and the Telford Science Library. There is a separately-administered library in the law school.
Leyburn Library will be undergoing a fairly extensive renovation during 2008-09. Watch the daily Campus Notices and the library's various Library News services.
Leyburn Library, Telford Library, and the law library are open 24 hours a day when classes are in session. Coffee and other hot drinks are available while we are open.
The University Library collections include over 702,000 volumes, 1,000 current printed periodical subscriptions, thousands of titles in online journal collections, 28 printed newspaper subscriptions, and include microforms, video in DVD and VHS formats, music CD's, and computer software.
The University Library is a Federal Depository Library for U.S. Government publications, as is the law library.
Special Collections houses rare books, manuscripts, and the W&L archives.
Most books are arranged by the Library of Congress classification system, periodicals are shelved alphabetically by title, and U.S. Government Documents are shelved by the SuDocs system.
The library materials budget is not allocated by academic department or program, although expenditures are reported by discipline in the annual W&L Fact Book.
The 2008-09 budget includes $384,450 for books, $1,066,649 for periodicals and other serial subscriptions, and $21,000 for media.
Send requests for book purchases to the Acquisitions department via request slips, e-mail, or use the electronic form in the library Web site. Expensive requests are reviewed by the appropriate department liaison (see below).
We also have an approval plan with a national wholesaler which provides automatic weekly shipments of new books published by most U.S. university presses. We welcome your participation in examining these books, which are shelved in the Acquisitions department for about one week. Questions concerning book purchases should be referred to Laura Turner (x8659).
Send requests for media purchase or rental to Laura Turner or use this Web form.
Because periodical and other serial subscriptions involve a long-term commitment of funds, we ask you to send a letter of justification to support any new request. Send these requests to Dave Badertscher, Head of Technical Services, perhaps using this request form. It is helpful to identify courses for which the title is applicable, interdisciplinary applications, and research value. Of course, articles from periodicals the library does not hold may be available through various electronic services and/or interlibrary loan.
Each librarian serves as liaison to specific academic departments. Liaisons are responsible for the development of the collection in assigned areas. In addition, the reference librarians provide classroom instruction and develop and maintain web pages in these areas. For 2008-09 those assignments are:
The library catalog (Annie; see below) provides access to supplemental reading material placed on course reserve in the library. Within the boundaries of copyright law, this material may be electronic or on paper. For more information, see this page.
Faculty may check out books for the academic year, although the library may recall an item for another reader after two weeks. Reserve materials, reference works, periodicals, videos, DVD's, and CD's circulate for shorter periods. Microforms and materials in Special Collections do not circulate. See this page for more information.
The library requests materials from other institutions or commercial vendors as needed by our students and faculty and pays all charges associated with this service. More information, including an online request form, is available here.
The W&L libraries' online catalog is Annie (named for Annie Jo White, W&L librarian from 1895 to 1922) and includes library materials in all campus locations and indicates if books are on order or if they are checked out. As part of the campus network, Annie is available from your office, home, or anywhere else on the World Wide Web, and you may manage your own account from View Your Library Record.
Electronic full-text resources directly available through bibliographic records in Annie include over 2,220 electronic books and over 3,000 online periodicals, including the JSTOR and Project Muse services.
Our library Web site is a collection of resources maintained by the library staff, accessible from the W&L homepage and elsewhere on the World Wide Web. Resources include Annie, collections of online databases, guides to research, and information about the library and its services.
Subscription services are directly available to on-campus users, and a proxy server allows off-campus access to current W&L students, faculty, and staff.
There are 31 individual locked study rooms in Leyburn Library that are assigned on a term-by-term basis to students writing honors theses and faculty members who require a dedicated research space in the library. See this page or come by the University Librarian's office. There are hard-wired computing network connections in the studies on Lower Levels 2, 3, and 4. (For more information, see Computing Facilities.) While there is considerable competition during the academic year, studies are more readily available during the summer months.
See this page for details.
See this page.