Facts About the Libraries
Did you know that the UCF Libraries…
- Has collection holdings of 1.8 million print volumes
- Occupies a main campus facility of 226,000 gross square feet, the John C. Hitt Library.Other libraries include the 5,500 sq. ft. Curriculum Materials Center, the 9,500 sq ft Universal Orlando Foundation Library at Rosen College, and partner libraries with state colleges throughout Central Florida. .
- Welcomes over 46,000 library users to the John C. Hitt (main) Library, Curriculum Materials Center and Rosen College of Hospitality Library during a typical mid-semester week
- Provides access to 936,000 electronic documents on subjects from poetry to computer software
- Subscribes to 50,600 serials, including 49,000 electronic full-text journals
- Circulates over 950 items per day
- Conducted 2,289404 library instructional sessions for 75,260 students in 2013/14. Has digitized the entire 90-year history of the Florida Historical Quarterly, consisting of 35,000 images of material.
- Adds an average of 75 volumes to its collection each day
- Answers 860 reference questions during a typical week
- Provides 526 computer PCs, laptops and iPads for public use
- Delivers documents to UCF students throughout the country and as far away as Germany, in support of UCF’s distributed learning programs. In year 2013/14 Interlibrary Loan Services borrowed 20,346 items and loaned 32,990 items for UCF and outside patrons.
- Provides patrons with access to one of the largest databases in the world, Aleph, containing the holdings of the State University Libraries of Florida
- Is a member of the Association of Caribbean University, Research, and Institutional Libraries (ACURIL); Association of Southeastern Research Libraries (ASERL); Center for Research Libraries (CRL); Coalition for Networked Information (CNI); Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC); HathiTrust; Lyrasis; and more
- Has on display in the University Archives the shovel that turned the first spade of earth at the university’s groundbreaking on March 19, 1967
- Owns [Gregorian chant] (13th-14th centuries, manuscript), the oldest item in the UCF Libraries.
- Owns a Vulgate Bible printed in 1546, the oldest printed item in the UCF Libraries.
- Owns [Spanish antiphonary] (ca. 1520-1560), one of the oldest manuscripts in the UCF Libraries.
- Owns a collection of books, serials, periodicals, anthropological artifacts and paintings that document the history, geography, economic and social life of the West Indies. See portions of the Bryant West Indies Collection.
Resources and services include:
- Electronic access to journals, electronic databases on CD-ROM, and Web-based information resources in the library building and to users at home, office, or other off-campus locations.
- Web pages at https://library.ucf.edu which access the Libraries’ electronic resources and give information on the library’s services and collections.
- The U.S. Patents and Trademark Depository Collection containing U.S. Patents, from 1957, on microfilm.
- Special Collections & University Archives contains resources that have a central function to the curriculum and that cannot be replaced, and primary source materials that are original, rare, fragile, and of an enduring value. SCUA supports long-term research goals by ensuring that its resources are accessible to researchers in perpetuity. Many of the resources are one-of-a kind found only in SCUA, therefore researchers must use materials on-site, they do not circulate. In concert with these goals SCUA has six distinct collecting areas:
- African Americana
- Book Arts & Typography
- Bryant West Indies
- Floridiana
- Travel & Tourism
- University Archives
- Original artwork is located throughout the library. A brochure with detailed information about the artwork can be found at the Research & Information Desk in the Knowledge Commons on the entrance floor.