AXE - Axe Library Virtual Tour

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The entrance of the Axe Library is equipped with and ADA style door. There is usually a student on duty who will be able to answer basic directional questions. To your left is an elevator, directly in front is the stairwell leading to the Circulation desk. A display case is positioned under several large windows in the Browsing Area.

Water fountains and restrooms are available to your right, as well as public and Campus telephones.

The Circulation desk is located directly in front of you as you enter the main floor. Check out and return all Library materials here. The book drop is located on the left side of the desk.

To the right is the browsing area, to the left of the Circulation desk is a main corridor leading to the Library Director's office.

The Browsing Area is to your right. This is a large open area with a number of tables and is ideal for individual or group study.

The Browsing Area also holds our collection of newspapers, "new books", the "Axe Grind", and a Campus bulletin board. An emergency exit is located to the extreme far left corner of the room.

Also located in this area is a CVC ("Cash Value Card") machine, where you may put money on your Banana Bucks or Gorilla Card. Money may be added using a credit card through an account on these sites.

If you need a study boost, the Axe Grind is the place for you. Conveniently located in the lobby of the Axe Library, the Axe Grind features a variety of espresso drinks, smoothies, sodas, fresh baked goods and snacks. The Axe Grind also features super charged coffee called Shock Therapy, to help you get through those long study enenings.

The main corridor of the Library is to the left of the Circulation Desk. To the immediate left of this corridor are a number of public use computer workstations. This is a great place to do a preliminary search in our online catalog, or in one of our online databases.

The corridor leads to the Library Director's office (on the right hand side of the hall), and the Computer Lab (to the left). This corridor also houses our ERIC document collection, journals and newspapers on microfilm, the Annual Report files, Travel Files, and other materials.

The Library office is located in room 109 at the far end of the Main Corridor. Please stop in if you would like to fill out a student work application, schedule use of the 202 classroom, voice a concern, or make a suggestion on how we can serve you better.

The Reference area is located to the left of the first floor entry and elevator. You pass a number of public use workstations on the right to get to the Reference desks. The main Reference collection is located beyond the desks and several tables holding public use workstations.

If you are not sure what to look for, or how to go about finding what we have in the Library, please stop and ask at Reference. We will be happy to show you how to do a basic online search, or how to fine tune a topic you have chosen. If you have not found material on your subject, our Reference staff may be able to, or suggest alternate material, even direct you to Interlibrary Loan if necessary.

The Reference Collection is located near the Reference desks on the main floor. Material covering all topics are conveniently located near the Reference librarians in order to give you access to quality material and easy assistance if you need help.

Special Services offers services such as a fax service (AxeFax), computer searching, Off Campus services, and a fee-based photocopy service (AxeCopie$)...

Interlibrary Loan provides access to a 'world-wide' library. Materials that are not owned in our collection might be obtained from other libraries. Patrons may fill out an online form for material that is not in our online catalog. Books and photocopied journal articles are the most commonly obtained items, however any material needed and not held in our collection is worth investigating.

The Axe Library retains over 1600 periodical titles. Many are current subscriptions; other titles go back as far as the mid 1800's. The Periodicals department is in charge of subscriptions, cataloging and maintaining these titles. Current titles (including newspapers) are kept on the main floor. Back issues are held on microfilm (first floor), or in bound volumes (basement). Check our online catalog for titles and exact holdings.

"Serials Solutions" provides a way of locating our journal holdings, either in physical form or subscriptions to journals in one of our full text databases.

The Axe Library has one microform scanner that is available for patron use. This scanner gives you a full range of use when using our microform collections. Newspapers, journals, ERIC documents, all may be scanned and excerpts saved to disk, inserted into Word or PowerPoint files, or saved to the desktop and sent to your email account. The computer is also connected to our Print Lab, so scans may be printed out if necessary.

Located within the Library is a computer print lab housing 24 computers, five of which are iMacs. Software packages include the latest version of Microsoft Office, SPSS 10.1 for Windows and various Internet Resources (Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Telnet, Ace FTP, and Adobe Acrobat Reader).

All print jobs from our first floor workstations go to the print lab. When you are ready to pick up your items, tell the lab operator which computer you were working on, and he or she will print them for you.

The Axe Library houses a state-of-the-art Library Instruction classroom. This classroom has 25 student computers and one instruction computer with overhead projection capabilities. PSU Faculty may schedule instruction sessions that introduce their students to basic research, or in-depth instruction on particular Library databases.

PSU faculty may schedule classroom instruction sessions for their students by contacting the Library Resources Instruction Librarian at 235-4887. We provide basic instruction, such as how to use the Axe Library online catalog, to in-depth instruction of particular online databases and tools that enable students to better research their topics.