Library Services

The Stockwell-Mudd Libraries make available to students and faculty more than 425,000 print books and non-print items, more than 100,000 digital books, over 20,000 electronic and print journal subscriptions, and full text articles from more than 53,000 journals through the library's many online databases. The library is open 111 hours a week. Research assistance is available at the Information Desk 53 hours a week, and librarians also provide help through e-mail, text messaging, chat, Twitter and Facebook.

Albion College librarians have developed a strong program of library instruction to meet the needs of students and faculty and to support the College’s liberal arts curriculum. The instruction program emphasizes information literacy and promotes critical thinking and lifelong learning. The staff offers instruction services that include general library orientation sessions, course-specific and assignment-specific library instruction, and instruction on using specific research tools and the critical evaluation of sources. Librarians work closely with faculty to be certain that the reference sources, research strategies and evaluation methods that are presented address the specific information and research needs of the students in their classes.

Librarians are committed to exploring current and emerging technologies and how they may best be used by our academic community. In addition to books and journals in multiple formats, the library provides access to a wide range of the devices students need to access information and create knowledge—desktop computers, laptops, and various tablet computers and e-readers. We’re also committed to making information discovery more effective through OneSearch, a service that allows patrons to search nearly all library resources with a single search.

The book collections are distributed between two buildings connected by an enclosed walkway: Stockwell Memorial Library (1938) and Seeley G. Mudd Learning Center (1980). The Cutler Commons, located in the Stockwell building, provides interactive study spaces; a one-stop services area for circulation, research help, and assistance with technology; and a café. The Stockwell building also houses back issues of periodicals and the Wendell Will Room.

The Mudd building houses the current periodicals collection, extensive collections of U.S. government documents, the Madelon Stockwell Turner Memorial Room, the Foundation for Undergraduate Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity (FURSCA), and the Academic Skills Center. The Special Collections Department is also located in the Mudd Building, and contains the College's archives, the Rare Books Collection, and the archives of the West Michigan Conference of the United Methodist Church. These are closed stacks, but access to these collections is available by appointment.

The library website provides instant access to the library catalog, numerous online databases and full-text resources, journal holdings, and research assistance.

The book collections are extensive and provide support across the curriculum. A large collection of classic and popular movies is also available. The library is a participant in the Michigan Electronic Library (MeLCat), an online system that enables Albion students and faculty to directly borrow materials from other participating Michigan libraries. In addition, the library's interlibrary loan service provides students, faculty and staff with materials not available locally.

The library contains a variety of areas for study—classrooms, seminar rooms for groups, carrels for individual study, and comfortable group spaces with movable furniture. The Friends of the Library sponsor a variety of displays and programs, including readings and lectures, and the Odd Topics Society series. These programs offer a public forum for authors reading from their works and for speakers making presentations on a variety of topics.