Collections
Library Catalog
The library catalog contains books, government documents, maps, microforms, and other items supporting research and reading for the courses taken at CWU. The books are spread across the 3rd and 4th floors of the main campus library and shelved from A to Z by Library of Congress subject classification.
University Archives
The Archives Department at Central Washington University was established in 2004 to act as the repository for official and unofficial records that document the history of the university. The Archives, located on the 4th Floor of Brooks Library, serve as the institutional memory of the university and as custodian of the university's historic legacy. The primary objective of the Archives is to appraise, collect, organize, describe, preserve, and make available university records and related materials of permanent historical value. The Archives also aims to support research, teaching, and public awareness of the rich heritage of Central Washington University.
Documents
The Documents collections consist of US., international, state, and local/regional documents and are located on the Third Floor of Brooks Library. Assistance with locating and using the materials is available at the Documents Reference Desk.
Maps
The Maps Library contains appoximately 90,000 maps on a wealth of geographic and subject areas: topographic maps for all 50 states; Forest Service, National Parks, & recreational maps; geologic, hydrologic & other USGS series maps; soil & land use maps; aerial photos and satellite images; and more.
Media
Library-Media Circulation(LMC), located on the First Floor of the Brooks Library, maintains and circulates the VHS video, DVD video, and 16MM film collections of the library. LMC also has space available for viewing items from these collections.
Music
The CWU Music Library is located on the Fourth Floor of the Main Library, and serves as the functional music library for the Music Department and the campus at large. The Music Library's collections are housed in two rooms: Rm. 401, which contains the Listening Area, as well as the Music Education Room and the Listening Classroom, and Rm. 402, which houses the music scores and books, the hardcover music periodicals, and the music reference books.
Periodicals
The library subscribes to current print and online scholarly journals, newspapers and serials which benefit the research of faculty and students of all disciplines. Titles to journals and newspapers are searchable within the Cattrax Catalog. Current issues of journals and newspapers are located in the Periodical Room on the Second Floor, with many of the back issues of journal titles located in the Second Floor Stacks (shelves) or in closed storage and bound together according to volume or year. Please ask at the 2nd Floor Help Desk in the Periodicals Room if you need assistance in retrieving bound volumes. Further searching for articles by topic or title is possible by referring to a print or online index, and by searching our online journal titles and article full text databases. Help in locating articles can be found at the Reference Desk (1st Floor) or the Periodical Room Help Desk (2nd Floor). The library also participates in cooperative purchasing of access to journal articles found within databases, by subject and by title, and electronic journal publisher packages.
Special Collections
The Special Collections unit was re-established in the spring of 2005 to serve the needs of its patrons by acquiring and providing access to information about the cultural history of central Washington. Manuscript materials, oral histories and other significantly unique items which support the curriculum of the Central Washington University are also acquired and made available for use.