General Information
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Mission Statement
The mission of the Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library is to provide uncompromising service:To fellow staff members, in a cooperative effort that recognizes the dignity and worth of individuals and their potential for unique contributions, and therefore promotes more efficient operation and better service to patrons.
To patrons from the university community, by actively striving to determine the research
needs of faculty, staff and students; by making resources available to the greatest extent possible; and by serving as a center for interdisciplinary activity.To patrons from the larger regional/national community, by acquiring, preserving, securing and making available the resources that are considered useful for the present and posterity, and by offering outreach programs to inform the public of our resources and mission.
The Southwest Collection/Special Collections Building
The Marshall Formby Room, named for the late Plainview resident, Texas Tech supporter and South Plains booster, accommodates 100 people with theater style seating and it is the center of special events in the new facility. The room was made possible by a generous pledge from Formby's widow, Sharleen Formby Rhoads. A smaller meeting room with a capacity of 16 is named in honor of former Texas Governor Preston Smith. A display of Smith memorabilia from his tenure as governor is incorporated into the room.
A
gallery along the north side of the building houses permanent
displays on the Southwest Collection as well as the other units
of the University Library, which have offices in the new
facility. Those offices include the University Archives, the
Archive of the Vietnam Conflict and the Library's Rare Books
Collection. Additionally, the facility is the new home for
editorial offices of the West Texas Historical Association and its annual
yearbook.
Offices in the new building open onto a rotunda beneath the third tower. The Library's 1688 Coronelli Globe is displayed in the rotunda.
Behind the offices are the non-public areas of the new facility where documents and materials are processed. The building includes an accessioning area where materials are received and logged in. From there materials, whether paper records, photographs or films/audiotapes/video tapes, go to their specific areas for processing before they are taken to the stacks or the appropriate vault for storage.
Upstairs the stacks area offers a climate-controlled environment that provides a constant temperature and humidity as well as a positive ventilation outflow which helps prevent the intrusion of bacteria or fungi which could damage valuable books and documents.
Additionally, the facility has a new conservation laboratory funded by the Hoblitzelle Foundation. The Hoblitzelle Conservation Lab will provide an appropriate environment for state-of-the-art preservation of valuable and one-of-a-kind materials.