How We Build Our World-Class Collections

The University Libraries will be the indispensable hub of discovery, learning and creativity at Texas A&M by providing a distinguished collection of information resources unbounded by place and preserved for future generations.

Overview

The Libraries actively participate in the University’s goal to become a top ten public university in America. The University is designated as a Carnegie Doctoral/Research University-Extensive, and has further designations as a land grant, sea grant and space grant institution. Texas A&M Libraries has five College Station facilities:

  • Cushing Memorial Library: Rare books, special collections, manuscripts and archival repository
  • Medical Sciences Library: Medical and veterinary sciences
  • Policy Sciences & Economics Library: Political sciences and economics
  • Sterling C. Evans Library & Annex: General university library
  • Business Library and Collaboration Commons: Business

As noted above, each facility, except for the Evans Library & Annex, focuses on a specific subject or subject areas but has some overlap with other libraries. Evans Library & Annex collects across all subject areas.

In addition to the campus libraries, an offsite medium density storage facility is located within the greater College Station region. This Joint Libraries Facility (JLF), reporting to the University Libraries, provides off-site storage for 17 Texas university libraries including Texas’ two flagship university systems, the University of Texas System and the Texas A&M University System.

Outside of College Station, libraries that fall within the Texas A&M University umbrella also include a dental library, law library, and two international Texas A&M facilities.

Collection Statistics

Primary User Population Statistics (obtained from TAMU Enrollment Profile Fall 2016)

The 2016 Fall enrollment for Texas A&M University totaled approximately 66,000 students, and of that total, the College Station campus enrolled 60,435 students (91% of total enrollment). The undergraduate enrollment comprises roughly 77.4% or 51,232 of the students. Masters students made up 11.0%, doctoral students 7.6% and professional degree seeking students 4.0% of the total student population. For the most current statistics, consult the Texas A&M Office of Institutional Studies and Planning.

Collection Statistics as submitted to the Association of Research Libraries (ARL)

The Libraries are dedicated to providing materials in a variety of formats accessible both on campus and remotely. Resources and expenditures for the 2015-2016 reporting period were approximately:

  • 5,609,657 volumes held
  • 1,784,816 eBooks held
  • 1,712 databases
  • 128,814 unique journal titles (of which 94% are available electronically)
  • 6,473,984 microforms held
  • $25,680,255 Total Library Materials Expenditures (2015/2016)

For the 2015-2016 reporting period the Texas A&M University Libraries ranked:

  • 2nd in Journal expenditures among the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) members
  • 1st in Journal expenditures among ARL U.S. Public University Libraries
  • 9th in eBook holdings among ARL U.S. Public University Libraries

Additional Resources