Libraries

The Elmer E. Rasmuson Library, with more than 1.1 million volumes, is the largest library in the state. The building was recently renovated and offers wireless networking and walk up ports, as well as designated quiet study spaces with natural lighting, group study rooms and a secure 24-hour study space with an open-access computer lab.

The library offers extensive reference and instructional services for students. Library faculty and staff help students conduct library research using UAF online and print databases and collections. The library information and research course, LS101, 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 libraries nationwide. Rasmuson Library's website serves as a gateway to more than 160 online resources with broad coverage in the sciences, humanities and social sciences, management, and engineering. Web-based indexes and collections link to full-text articles from more than 13,000 periodical titles. Additional web-based resources include reference tools, electronic books, specialized sources for arctic and polar information and indexes to special formats such as government documents and dissertations. All web-based resources are accessible off-site to UAF students, faculty and staff with appropriate authorization. Materials that are not owned by UAF libraries may be obtained through interlibrary loan services.

Rasmuson Library is a federal documents depository, receiving 40 percent of the materials published by the U.S. Government Printing Office. Special collections in the library include the internationally recognized Alaska and Polar Regions collections, covering books, periodicals, archival documents, manuscripts, historical photographs, film, oral histories and maps. APR hosts Alaska's Digital Archives and continues to digitize archival materials in an effort to make more specialized materials available to the public.

The BioSciences Library, in the Arctic Health Research Building on UAF's West Ridge, is a branch of the Rasmuson Library which provides substantial resources in the life sciences. The Biosciences Library offers specialized reference services as well as 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/.