Message From the Dean and Director

Welcome to the Central University Libraries! Service to Southern Methodist University students, faculty and staff is our primary goal. We hope that you will enjoy your experience here - either literally in one of our libraries or virtually through the Internet - and that you find the resources and support you need.

The Central University Libraries (CUL) is the largest of the SMU library units, with holdings of over 2 million volumes. The Fondren Library Center contains more than 2 million volumes of books, government publications, microforms and bound journals serving students and faculty in the humanities, social sciences, science and engineering, business and education, communications and journalism. You can also pickup a DVD for the weekend at the main circulation desk. The Jake and Nancy Hamon Arts Library has holdings of about 120,000 volumes in the areas of music, fine arts and performing arts. The DeGolyer Library of Special Collections is a non-circulating special collections branch containing more than 100,000 volumes and 5,500 feet of manuscripts of rare books, Texana, women's archives and transportation materials (the SMU Archives is also located in the DeGolyer Library). The ISEM Reading Room serves students and faculty of the Institute for the Study of Earth and Man in the areas of anthropology, geology and geophysical sciences. The Norwick Center for Digital Services includes a student multimedia center, screening room, and supports a full range of digital services, production services and collaborative technology support. CUL staff are responsible for providing services and collections at the Fred Wendorf Information Center at SMU-in-TAOS, NM, which supports the distance education programs on the SMU-in-Plano campus. To see a more detailed description of each library and the services it provides, please click on the individual home pages.

The library online catalog of all SMU library holdings, can be accessed from any of the libraries as well as from remote dial-in locations both on and off campus. The Fondren Library Center Information Commons is now available 24/7 for SMU students, faculty and staff. Come and join the other night owls for quiet study space and computer access.

Over the next several years, we will be engaged in planning a major renovation of the Fondren Library Center Complex. We are anxious to involve as many of our users in this process as possible, so please let me know if you are willing to be called upon. We welcome feedback from you, our users, at all times. Feel free to email me personally at gmccombs@smu.edu, or use any of our various online Ask-a-Librarian services. We also have a student forum that meets monthly during the semester for pizza in my office and discusses ways to enhance the student library experience. If you are interested in joining the CUL Student Advisory Council, just drop me a line or give me a call. And if you are lonely for a human face, come and see me. My office is located on the third floor of Fondren Library East, room 300.