The Thomas F. Holgate Library seeks to accommodate the
educational programs, philosophy, mission, goals and objectives of the College.
In that regard, the College has made constant efforts to provide and maintain a
balanced library program that fosters and aids the promotion and achievement of
academic, professional, and personal excellence.
About the Holgate Library
The Thomas F. Holgate Library provides the students, faculty, and staff of Bennett College with a comprehensive array of library resources and services in support of the mission of the college and its degree programs. The library is housed in a single, 16,590 square foot structure in the
northwest corner of campus. The Instructional Materials Center (CIMC) is located on the
ground floor of the library and is independently operated by the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. The library employs
six full-time staff, including the library director, reference librarian, night reference librarian, circulation librarian, cataloger, and archivist.
The library staff provides eighty-three
public service hours per week during the fall and spring semesters and forty-five public service hours per week during the summer. Hours are extended during exam periods.
During public service hours, the library provides students, faculty, and staff with access to numerous technological resources. Available computer workstations include one catalog lookup station, one reference interview station, twelve public access desktops, eleven circulating laptops, and fifteen instructional laptops. Available software includes Microsoft Office 2010, Adobe Acrobat 8.0, and resume creator software. In addition, the library provides access to audio headsets, one computer printing kiosk, one flatbed scanner, one photocopier, one typewriter, and one VHS/DVD/CD viewing and listening station.
The library’s total resource holdings include over 90,000 monographs, 36,000 ebooks, 2,400 audio-visual items, and 23,000 periodicals with full text access.
The library maintains a
comprehensive web portal that provides 24-hour access to the library’s OPAC, electronic books, alphabetical list of databases and electronic resources,
research guides, and a
library toolkit. Remote access to the library’s electronic resources is provided either by vendor authentication or via proxy server.
The library maintains
circulation policies and procedures to ensure that students, faculty, and staff have timely access to the library’s collections and
course reserves items. With the exception of reference items, print books and monographs may be
checked out of the library for three weeks. VHS tapes, CDs, and DVDs may be checked out for four days. Reference items, journals, and magazines may be used
inside the library only. In addition, the library staff maintains a
course reserves section at the circulation desk. Faculty may submit any personal items, including textbooks and items from the library’s general collection, to be held in the reserve section. Students may
check out and use reserve items inside the library for two hours at a time during public service hours.
In addition to the library’s local holdings, through the
NC-PALS cooperative borrowing agreement, students, faculty, and staff may check out the holdings of Greensboro College, Guilford College, Salem College, and Salem Academy. Faculty, staff, and students may search these schools’ holdings via the library’s online public access catalog (OPAC) and place holds for items to be delivered to the library for pickup. Through the
Triad Academic Library Association (TALA) cooperative borrowing agreement, students, faculty, and staff may visit and check out books from most college or university libraries in the greater Triad area. In addition to these checkout privileges, students, faculty, and staff may request items via
Interlibrary Loan (ILL).
Comprehensive
reference services for faculty, staff, and students are provided by the reference and other library staff for 83 hours per week. Reference services are available during all public service hours and include consultative support for
information literacy skills development, including research planning, topic and focus refinement, identifying and using information resources, technology-related questions, formatting and proofreading, and plagiarism and citation style.
The library staff provides
comprehensive course-related and course-integrated instructional services to all faculty. Library staff coordinates library session curricula, assignments, and handouts with faculty as requested. Content of library instruction sessions is catered to the instructional needs of individual courses and supports
information literacy skills development.
In addition to course-related and course-integrated instruction, the library provides to all users weekly
drop-in workshops. Drop-in workshop topics include library research basics, evaluating websites for research, plagiarism and citation style, powerful Power-Point presentations, Microsoft Office training, graduate school planning and preparation, and bibliographic management software.
