Helm-Cravens Library

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Helm-Cravens Library is unique: the first floor of the Helm Library is connected by a walkway to the fourth floor of the Cravens Graduate Center & Library; and the second floor of Helm is connected by another walkway to the fifth floor of Cravens

Book Stacks

Fifth through Ninth Floor, Cravens

Stacks & Arrangement of Books

Floors five through nine house the open stacks, the main portion of the circulating collection.

Books are arranged alphabetically based on the Library of Congress Classification System starting with A on the fifth floor of Cravens. Specific locations of books so arranged are illustrated as follows:

Floor	Stack Location
5th Floor	A - D
6th Floor	E - HG
7th Floor	HJ - L
8th Floor	M - PR
9th Floor	PS - Z

Facilities

TOPCAT 2000 terminals are located on each of these floors, where offices, conference rooms, and graduate student study carrels are located. Library users may browse and study on these floors.

Circulation Services

Fourth Floor, Cravens
Enter the main entrance on the fourth floor of Cravens and you will see Circulation Services.

Circulation Area

Books and other materials in the Helm-Cravens complex may be checked out at the Circulation Desk on the fourth floor of Cravens. Items may also be checked out at the Educational Resources Center. For further information on circulation policies and procedures consult the Circulation Desk at either of the two locations.

Reserves

Materials placed on reserve by faculty are available at the Circulation Desk. The Reserve reading area is near the Circulation Desk.

Information Kiosk

TOPDOG, the Libraries' touch screen terminal, is located on Cravens 4 and provides general information about University Libraries.

New Books

New books which are ready for circulation are shelved for one week on special shelving on Cravens 4, near the reserves area. New books are also shelved in designated areas in branch libraries.

Leisure Collections

An extensive collection of current hardcover fiction and nonfiction books and audio tapes is available in this area.

Photocopy Service

Photocopiers and a faculty photocopying service are located on this floor as well.

Department of Library Technical Services

Third Floor, Cravens

The Department of Library Automation and Technical Services, which handles acquisition and processing of most library resources, is located on this floor.

Visual and Performing Arts Library

Second Floor, Cravens

Offices

First Floor, Cravens

The first floor of Cravens houses the offices of the Dean of Libraries & Museum, the Director of Development, and the Principal Accounts Clerk. The Center for Teaching and Learning resides on the first floor of Cravens as well.

Periodicals & Microforms Collections

Second Floor, Helm

The walkway from the fifth floor of Cravens leads to the second floor of Helm. Use the stairway near Circulation Services, go up one flight across the walkway and you will find the Periodicals and Microforms Collections area.

Circulation Area

Periodicals is the general term used to designate magazines, newspapers, professional and scholarly journals, and other publications which are issued at regular intervals. The WKU Libraries subscribes to over 5,000 current periodicals. Those housed in the Helm-Cravens Library are located on Helm 2. These include bound volumes and recent issues on separate shelving. Periodicals are shelved alphabetically by title. Indexes to periodicals are located on Helm 1.

Microforms

The collection, housed on Helm 2, consists of back issues of newspapers, journals and materials in diverse subjects such as anthropology, education, folklore, government, history and literature. Readers and printers are available.

Special Assistance

Various adaptive technologies are operated by Academic Computing and Research Services in the Student Technology Center (Helm 2), such as a document scanner, voice synthesizer, Braille printer and Dragon Dictate. For further information please call 745-6164.

Helm Reference Area

First Floor, Helm
The walkway from the fourth floor of Cravens leads to the Reference Center on the first floor of Helm where remnants of the building's athletic legacy are preserved..

Reference Center

The Reference Center provides assistance in using all the indexes and collections located in the main library complex.
Try our ASK US! Web Reference Service: http://www.wku.edu/Library/forms/ask_us!.htm

Reference Collection

The Helm Reference area houses an array of printed, microform, and electronic information tools. Almanacs, bibliographies, dictionaries, general and specialized encyclopedias, newspaper and journal indexes and abstracts are the major types of reference materials available for use when the library is open. Atlases and maps, college catalogs, company reports, grants information, and telephone directories are also held in this area.

Indexes/Abstracts

Most print indexes and abstracts are housed in the Reference Center. All subject searches should begin in this area.

Ready Reference

Some heavily used reference sources are housed behind the Reference Desk and must be asked for.

Electronic Reference Area

A cluster of computer workstations is located in the Electronic Reference area and InfoLab. These workstations provide access to a variety of Internet-accessible and CD-ROM indexes to periodical and government documents literature. Many full-text government databases are housed here as well. Downloading of search results is encouraged. Many of these resources are also available through WKUNet in any of the ACRS labs and in campus offices.

Interlibrary Loan

Located at the far right corner of the Reference Room, Interlibrary Loan provides a system for borrowing from other libraries materials not available at WKU Libraries. You may ask for forms at the Reference Desk. This service is limited to faculty, staff and graduate students. Undergraduates may use the service after obtaining their professor's signature on each ILL request form they submit.

Government & Law

Ground Floor, Helm
One flight below the Helm Reference Area.

Documents

The WKU/Warren County Law Collections and Federal and Kentucky government documents are on the ground floor of Helm. WKU Libraries has received government documents through the Federal Depository Library Program since 1934 and, in 1994, was one of the first libraries to be designated an Electronic Depository Library by the Superintendent of Documents of the United States.

The collection includes materials on a wide variety of topics such as Congressional Studies, debates and legislation, and various technical reports and statistics from federal agencies. Kentucky documents include a variety of official reports, studies and statistical compilations from state agencies and from the Barren River Area Development District (BRADD) The indexes for this collection are available in the Reference Center, where you can also receive assistance in using the collection.

Law

Located in a separate area adjacent to documents, the Law Collections serves the Warren County legal community as well as Western Kentucky University. The Law Collections contains all reported court opinions from the federal courts and the fifty states; regulations and statutes for the United States and Kentucky; and basic legal research tools such as digests, encyclopedias, and law journals. WESTLAW, a computer-assisted legal research system, is available to the Western Kentucky University community. If assistance in this area is needed, go to Room 4 or call 270-745-6441.