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About the Library: Introduction

Library policies, services, and collections

Mission of the Library

The College of the Redwoods Library supports the college commitment ot enhancing learning opportunities for students, faculty, staff, and the community it serves.  To this end, the library's mission is to:

  • Provide high-quality services and programs that promote information literacy, critical thinking, lifelong learning skills, and a spirit of free inquiry in CR students and the campus community.
  • Provide organized information resources that support the achievement of program and learning outcomes throughout the college.
  • Provide an environment, physical and virtual, conducive to the access, use, study, and understanding of information resources, to the community of learners.

Student success and the library

Many classes have assignments that require students to locate reliable sources of information. Students often assume this information will be easy to locate on the web. If that assumption proves incorrect, librarians and library staff are ready to help you find what you need to meet the requirements of the assignment, whether in the library or on the internet. Below is some data showing the extent of library support we provide to students:

  • Eureka and Del Norte libraries have over 95K books, eBooks, DVDs, and other items that can be borrowed, including headphones, flash drives, calculators, laptops, study roooms
  • Library patrons borrow about 2K items per month
  • Eureka library has 45 and Del Norte library has 10 magazine subscriptions
  • Librarians and library staff answer about 18.5K questions per year
  • Librarians teach about 650 students how to do research per year
  • Eureka and Del Norte libraries have 37 online research databases, which are searched by students about 75K times per year

 

Library Services

College libraries are located at both the main campus in Eureka and the Del Norte Education Center, and are open Monday through Friday throughout most of the year.  Limited hours on Saturdays are available at the Eureka Campus during Fall and Spring terms.  CR studetns, staff, faculty, and District residents with legal picture identification may borrow materials to take home or may use materials in the library.

Collections and Borrowing:  In addition to the general collection, the CR library includes collections of reserve materials, eBooks, videos, fiction, and a juvenile collection.  Most materials can be checked out for use at home. See tabs above for more information about loan periods and policies.

Reference Services: Library faculty provide research advice and assistance, aas well as instruction in the use of library collections and resources and the use of the library's online materials.  Librarians also provide instruction and research workshops to classes at the request of faculty.

Online Library Services and Resources: Online databases provide access to full-text articles, e-books, streaming media, and a wide variety of research information 24/7, and can be accessed through the library website.  On-campus, these resources are available to any library user.  Off-campus access is limited to current CR studetns and staff, and requires a password to access. Reference services are also available from off-campus through the Chat link on the library website, or through submission of the "Ask-a-Librarian" web form for email.

Library Computers and Copiers: Both libraries have computers available for public use. The Eureka library has over 100 computer stations, all of which have internet access and a full suite of MS Office applications. Scanners are available at many workstations.  Copiers are available for public use.  Printing is available in both color and black-and-white.  For more information, please use the tabs at the top of this page.