Purpose Statement and Resources

The purpose of the Division of the Library and Information Technologies is to provide the learning resources and services necessary to support the educational, research, and informational needs of the University, the Alpine community, and the Big Bend area.

The primary resources of the Division are its collections and its staff. The combined collections total over 225,000 cataloged books, 1,600 serial titles, 44 newspaper subscriptions, 464,000 microforms, 6,200 DVDs, videos, films, and audio recordings; 5,000 maps, pictures, and charts; and 25,000 photographs.

Electronic searching of the collections is provided by the WebCat online catalog, which includes links to over 50,000 netLibrary full-text ebooks, 104 electronic databases, with full text from over 52,000 journals, newspapers, and periodicals. Articles not available in full-text can be requested by the Sul Ross Community through Interlibrary Loan and are usually delivered online.

Special collections include the reference and juvenile collections, Texas state documents, ERIC microfiche, and the Archives of the Big Bend which contains thousands of books, manuscripts, and photographs depicting life and culture in the Big Bend/Trans-Pecos region of Texas from the early 1800's to the present.