Library facilities and services serve as important resources for Wittenberg students and faculty and include the full range of traditional and nontraditional access to learning materials and information. Thomas Library, built in 1982, provides space for multimedia materials and equipment and houses more than 380,000 volumes, 45,000 bound periodicals, 1,100 current periodicals in print with another 5,500 periodicals in electronic form, nearly 20,000 sound recordings, and a large collection of videotapes. A branch library in the science building provides specialized resources for the natural and physical sciences. The main library includes the Research Help Center, where students can get help using on-line resources from the library staff. In addition, the microcomputer laboratory in Thomas Library is equipped with a wide variety of software including telecommunications, word processing, spreadsheets, and database managers. Like the main library, both the Research Help Center and the microcomputer laboratory are open more than 100 hours per week, with extended hours at the end of the semester and during final examination week. A graphics production laboratory in the library's audiovisual department includes equipment to produce materials for classroom presentations. Slides and overhead transparencies (either photographic or computer-generated), videotapes, posters, and slidetape shows are among the projects made by students in past years.

To discover the library's holdings, students and faculty can use the state-of-the-art computerized library system connected to the campus computer network via fiber-optic cable. From inside the library they can make use of terminals located on all three floors of the building. Access from outside the library in offices, labs, residence halls, and apartments is available by network connection or modem. Besides showing the library's holdings by author, title, and subject, the system provides other access points, allows users to "browse" shelves electronically, and identifies whether or not an item is available or checked out. Users can also call up a list of items checked out to themselves, find out what material is on reserve for a particular class, and have items held for later use.

Library use is no longer limited to locally-owned items. From Wittenberg's library catalog one can easily access the OhioLINK Central Catalog, a consolidated listing of the library materials of over 75 colleges and universities in the state. Wittenberg library users can make online requests for any of 31 million volumes and expect delivery in three days. Wittenberg students and faculty may also visit any OhioLINK member library and directly check out or return books; this is especially convenient during breaks and weekend visits home. If OhioLINK's holdings do not suffice, individuals may use the services of interlibrary loan, which operates through the Online Computer Library Center, an international network of more than 20,000 libraries. Using OCLC, Wittenberg interlibrary loan staff will find a unique item that is needed and request it for use on this campus. Internet access to numerous individual library catalogs further links the student to the world of information, as do connections to various databases and Web resources on the Thomas Library homepage.

To help the student develop the knowledge and skills needed to make use of this wealth of material, librarians and other library staff provide instruction directly related to specific classes and assist students individually in the library at the reference and circulation desks and in the audiovisual department and microcomputer laboratory.
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