Libraries
Laboratories
and Research Facilities
Museums
SMU
Libraries
Service to Southern Methodist University students,
faculty and staff is the primary goal of all libraries at SMU.
The libraries of the University contain more than 2.5 million
volumes. PONI, an on-line catalog of all holdings, can be accessed
from any of the libraries as well as from remote dial-in locations
both on and off campus.
SMU Libraries rank first in total volumes
held among non-ARL (Association of Research Libraries) universities
in the United States. The SMU Libraries, which rank highly within
the region, comprise the largest private research library in the
Southwest and rank third within the region in total volumes, after
the University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University.
SMU Libraries are one of the greatest assets of the University.
The University’s library system is divided
into a number of different units:
-
Central University
Libraries (reporting to the Office of the Provost)
-
Underwood Law
Library (reporting to the School of Law)
-
Bridwell Library
(reporting to the Perkins School of Theology)
-
Business Information
Center (reporting to the Edwin L. Cox School of Business)
Central
University Libraries
The largest of the SMU library units is Central
University Libraries (CUL), with holdings of more than 1.8 million
volumes. CUL comprises Fondren Library, the Hamon Arts Library,
the Science and Engineering Library, the DeGolyer Library and
SMU Archives, the ISEM (Institute for the Study of Earth and Man)
Reading Room, and the Norwick Center for Media and Instructional
Technology.
Fondren Library, with more than 900,000
volumes of books, government publications, and bound journals,
serves students and faculty in the areas of humanities, social
sciences, business, and education. Its Electronic Resources Center
provides workstations for on-line access to PONI, the Internet,
and a campus local area network of CD-ROM subscriptions in many
of the SMU Libraries. Fondren Library is a selective depository
for government information resources and has a large microforms
collection of retrospective periodicals and special collections
in the humanities and social sciences.
Strengths of the Fondren Library include,
but are not limited to, classical studies, late 18th- and early
19th-century English literature, American history, Texas history,
contemporary biography and literature, anthropology, economics,
and other social sciences. Fondren Library also provides reading
materials placed on reserve by classroom faculty and access to
holdings from other libraries nationwide via Interlibrary loan.
Hamon Arts Library, with holdings of
more than 80,000 volumes, serves students and faculty in the areas
of music, fine arts, and performing arts. It focuses on the classical
traditions of European art with additional resources in the areas
of American arts, especially Southwestern arts. The Jerry Bywaters
Special Collections wing has as its focus the art and artists
of the Southwest; the music life of Dallas; regional theatre history;
fashion throughout the ages; and regional architecture. The library
contains state-of-the-art technological facilities, including
a microcomputer laboratory, multimedia authoring workstations,
and video and laser disc information resources.
Science and Engineering Library contains
holdings of more than 700,000 volumes and serves students and
faculty in the areas of the sciences and engineering. It, too,
contains PONI and CD-ROM networked resources. The Science and
Engineering Library is responsible for the University’s map
collection, which includes more than 213,000 topographic and geologic
maps and aerial photographs, and the DeGolyer Earth Sciences collection
of more than 15,000 geological volumes.
CUL has an Industrial Information Service
housed in the Science and Engineering Library that provides a
cost-recovery fee-based information service to the business and
corporate community outside the University.
DeGolyer Library of Special Collections
is a noncirculating special collections branch of CUL that contains
more than 90,000 volumes. It includes 4,500 feet of manuscripts
and more than 350,000 photographs that do not circulate outside
of the building. The DeGolyer Library is open to all students
and faculty for research in areas such as the Trans-Mississippi
West, particularly the Southwest and Spanish borderlands, and
transportation history, especially railroads. It also is strong
in Southwestern history and literature. This library, in particular,
attracts scholars and researchers from around the country and
from the local community to research the Paul Horgan, J. Frank
Dobie, and Horton Foote collections, and the collections in the
Archives of Women of the Southwest.
SMU Archives, part of the DeGolyer
Library, is a noncirculating collection not open to the public.
The Archives contain historical records, photographs, documents,
and memorabilia concerning the establishment and growth of the
University. Administrative personnel of the University, local
historians, and media personnel from throughout the city are its
principal users.
ISEM Reading Room, with 10,000 volumes,
serves students and faculty of the Institute for the Study of
Earth and Man. It contains a wealth of information relating to
anthropology and geological and geophysical sciences.
The Norwick Center for Media and Instructional
Technology is responsible for multimedia resources, production
services, instructional development services, and classroom distribution
services. It offers classroom and individual viewing of approximately
5,000 documentary and feature film videocassettes, video discs,
films, and audio tapes, most of which can be found by using the
PONI on-line catalog.
Underwood
Law Library
Underwood Law Library, one of the 25 largest
law libraries in the country and the largest private law library
in the Southwest, serves the faculty and students of the School
of Law and as an information resource to the legal profession
in the Metroplex. The collection includes state and federal legislative,
judicial and administrative materials; non-law treatises and legal
periodicals; law treatises; U.S., international and foreign documents;
and U.S. government documents relating to the legal profession.
Strengths of the collection are in taxation, corporate law, securities,
labor law, air and space law, commercial and banking law, constitutional
law, and law and medicine. Special collections include the Erin
Bain Jones Collection on space and sea law. The Kay and Ray Hutchison
Legal Resource Learning Center in the Underwood Law Library is
a computer learning lab located on the third floor.
Bridwell
Library
The Bridwell Library of Perkins School of
Theology, with more than 300,000 volumes and nearly 150,000 microform
volumes, is the principal bibliographic resource for the fields
of theology and religious studies. Its mission is to acquire,
organize, preserve, make accessible, and interpret materials in
these and related fields. Among the Library’s special collections
are distinctive holdings in world and regional Methodism, early
and fine printing, early printed Bibles, 15th- and 16th-century
theological works, the history of printing, and the art of the
book. Its collection is interpreted by bibliographic instruction,
reference services, lectures, publications, and exhibitions.
The
Business Information Center
The Business Information Center (BIC) serves
the Edwin L. Cox School of Business. It includes microcomputer
laboratories and serves as an electronic network to business faculty
and staff offices, classrooms, and the School’s auditorium.
The BIC primarily serves students and faculty of the Cox School
of Business, with a core collection of reference and periodical
titles in print. But its primary resources are CD-ROM and on-line
database services in business and economics. Students are taught
end-user searching in commercial databases and strategies for
keeping current with state-of-the art information technology applications
in business. The Hillcrest Foundation International Resource Library
in the Business Information Center strengthens the international
resources provided to students. For more traditional print resources
in business, students and faculty use Fondren Library.
Laboratories
and Research Facilities
The University provides many laboratories
and much equipment for courses in accounting, anthropology, art,
biology, chemistry, languages, geological sciences, communication
arts, psychology, physics, health and physical education, dance,
music, theatre, statistics, and computer, electrical, industrial,
and mechanical engineering. (Descriptions of the engineering laboratories
are carried in the School of Engineering and Applied Science section,
and other University facilities are described in sections for
the individual schools.)
The teaching laboratories of the departments
of biological sciences, chemistry, geo-logical sciences, and physics
are housed in the Fondren Science Building. Virtually all teaching
laboratories and support facilities in the building have been
remodeled and updated.
Students have access to a wide array of specialized
instrumentation and laboratory equipment fundamental to studies
in the natural sciences, including spectrophotometers, high performance
liquid chromatographs, scintillation counters, a DNA synthesizer,
X-ray diffractometers, mass spectrometers, and an atomic absorption
spectrometer. Advanced undergraduate research is also supported
by tissue culture, animal care, and electron microscopy facilities,
as well as several departmental computer laboratories.
The Electron Microscopy Laboratory,
under the direction of the Department of Biological Sciences,
contains facilities available to both faculty and graduate students
of the University. This facility provides for the preparation
of material to be examined with the electron microscope and for
training in the use of the instruments. Currently, this laboratory
contains one scanning electron microscope and two transmission
electron microscopes used in the teaching and research programs
of the laboratory.
Information Technology Services (ITS),
located in the Bradfield Computing Center, 6100 Ownby Drive, provides
support for the instructional, research, administrative computing,
and communication environment for the University. ITS provides
computing services for both administrative and academic functions,
the campus e-mail service, and SMU’s World Wide Web server.
Administrative computing services are being
migrated from an IBM mainframe to a Windows NT and UNIX-based
client/server environment. A UNIX environment supports the statistical
analysis and academic computing functions for the University.
ITS is also responsible for technical support
for the shared microcomputer labs and classrooms such as the ACS
labs and the Digital Commons in Fondren Library West. A PC lab
is also available for general use in the Bradfield building. ITS
electronic communications services include telephone, voice mail,
dial-up data communications, e-mail, and connection to the Internet
and World Wide Web. All residence halls and fraternity houses
have access to these communications services.
The Cox School of Business and the School
of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS) also operate microcomputer
and terminal laboratories for student use. Additional information
is available from the Help Desk, 214-SMU-HELP (214-768-4357).
ITS has contracted with Hi-Ed to operate the
Computer Corner, currently located on the main floor of the Hughes-Trigg
Student Center. The Computer Corner is a sales outlet for microcomputer
hardware and software for student and departmental purchase. Compaq
and Apple products, Hewlett-Packard printers, and many popular
software products are offered at competitive prices. For additional
information, call 214-768-4033.
Southern Methodist University in Taos,
Fort Burgwin, is located 10 miles south of Taos, New Mexico,
at an elevation of 7,500 feet. The facility includes classrooms,
laboratories, offices, and a library, as well as living accommodations
for students and faculty. Northern New Mexico offers a multiplicity
of research opportunities for both natural and social scientists.
Pot Creek Pueblo, located on the fort’s property, is one
of the largest prehistoric archaeological sites in the northern
Rio Grande Valley.
The N.L. Heroy Science Hall houses
the Departments of Anthropology, Geo-logical Sciences, and Statistical
Sciences, as well as the Institute for the Study of Earth and
Man.
The Institute for the Study of Earth and
Man was created in 1966 by a gift from W.B. Heroy Sr. Its
purpose is to develop a program of continuing and professional
education reflecting the research and scholarly interests of the
faculties in Anthropology, Geological Sciences, and Statistical
Science. The Department of Geological Sciences operates several
unique laboratories, including the following:
The Dallas Seismological Observatory,
established by the Dallas Geophysical Society, is maintained and
operated by the University. A three-component, long-period seismograph
at the University, along with two remote experimental seismic
stations, are in operation. In addition, remote seismic stations
in southwest Texas are monitored by the Observatory. Data collected
by the Observatory are available to the faculty and advanced students
who wish to undertake basic research in seismology or tectonics.
The Ellis W. Shuler Museum of Paleontology
is a research museum affording opportunities for advanced study
of fossil faunas and their climatic and paleoecologic significance.
The collection, which specializes in vertebrate paleontology,
includes more than 150,000 fossils from the United States, Central
America, and northeastern Africa.
The Pollen Analysis Laboratory is operated
in conjunction with the Shuler Museum of Paleontology. The laboratory
is available to those in all areas of the Institute, the University,
and the larger research community.
The Geothermal Laboratory is the focus
of an extensive program of research in the thermal field of the
Earth. Geothermal energy resources and the thermal fields of sedimentary
basins are special topics of concentration. The research is worldwide
in scope. Specialized equipment for the measurement of thermal
conductivity of rocks, and for the measurement of accurate, precise
temperature logs in deep wells is available for research purposes,
and services are provided to other institutions and research centers
on a contractual basis.
The Electron Microprobe Laboratory
contains a fully automated JEOL model 733 electron microprobe
with four X-ray spectrometers and associated sample preparation
equipment. It is available on a regular basis for various research
projects in the Institute, the University, and other research
institutions.
The Stable Isotope Laboratory is a
general research facility available to support both academic and
student research in the Institute, in the University, and in other
research centers. It also provides extensive support for research
laboratories in the Southwest, Midwest, and West.
Museums
The Meadows Museum, founded by the
late philanthropist Algur H. Meadows and located in the Owen Arts
Center of the Meadows School of the Arts, houses one of the finest
and most comprehensive collections of Spanish art outside of Spain.
The permanent collection of 670 objects includes painting, sculpture,
decorative arts, and works on paper from the Middle Ages to the
present. Artists represented include El Greco, Velázquez,
Ribera, Zurbarán, Murillo, Goya, Picasso, and Miró.
The Meadows Museum hosts about four special exhibitions each year
in its temporary exhibition galleries and sponsors an active program
of public lectures, tours, films, concerts, symposia, a children’s
summer art program, and family days throughout the year. Museum
collections are often utilized by SMU faculty in their courses.
The museum membership program includes exhibition previews, tours
of private collections, and opportunities for travel. Docent tours
of the collection are available to school children, and to university
and adult groups.
The present Meadows facility will close November
12, 2000, to prepare for the move into a new, 66,000-square-foot
building on the east side of Bishop Boulevard. Meadows Museum
will open to the University in its new location on March 26, 2001.
Important 20th-century sculptures from the Elizabeth Meadows Sculpture
Garden will be integrated into the new location, including monumental
works by Rodin, Maillol, Henry Moore, Lipchitz, and David Smith.
The G. William Jones Film/Video Archives,
founded in 1967, is the only moving-image archive in the Southwest
and one of the oldest and largest in the United States. The mission
of the Archives is to find, preserve, study, and share the world’s
diverse film heritage for current and future generations and to
enhance harmonious relations between individuals, communities,
and countries through the use of film and video. It is one of
the few archives to actively seek out and preserve independent
feature films.
The Archives is housed in the Greer Garson
Theatre. Funded by a gift from the actress, the facility provides
staff offices, a research library, visiting researcher offices,
screening rooms for 35mm and 16mm films and video projection,
preservation and restoration workrooms, and a 3,800-square-foot
climate-controlled film and video storage vault. The Archives
supports the Center for Communication Arts and other departments
on campus by providing films and videotapes from the collection,
screening and research facilities, and staff curriculum support.
The Archives also serves the research purposes of numerous other
colleges, universities, museums, and libraries, as well as television
and film producers.
The Archives participates in the National
Moving Image Data Base (NAMID), one of the primary projects of
the National Center for Film and Video Preservation. NAMID’s
mandate is to serve as a working tool to make informed decisions
about the preservation of moving image materials, to facilitate
shared cataloging, and to increase access to primary research
materials on moving images. The Archives specializes in multicultural
films and video productions with about 10,000 films and 1,500
videocassettes. It holds the most extensive collection of African
American-produced films in the world and is committed to finding
and preserving these materials. The Archives’ Tyler, Texas,
Black Film Collection contains more than 120 titles, including
Blood of Jesus, which was chosen by the Library of Congress
as a national film treasure.
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