About Duckworth Library

Mission

To empower learning in the campus community through information resources, services and space.

Goals:

  • Meet the information needs of our users and promote the advancement of scholarly research and high learning.

  • Collaborate with the faculty to provide an instructional services program integrated into the curriculum that enables students to become lifelong critical consumers of information resources.

  • Promote intellectual freedom, ethical use of information, patron privacy, and unrestricted access to available resources.

  • Cultivate a physical environment that is welcoming, conducive to all forms of learning and interaction, and responsive to the changing needs of the students and the college.

  • Provide access to, organize and preserve quality collections in a variety of formats.

  • Undertake continual assessment of library resources, services, and space.

Duckworth Library Gateway

The Duckworth Library Home page, located at http://library.yhc.edu is designed as a single pathway to the Library’s diverse electronic and traditional holdings.  The Library’s web presence is evolving and changing as helpful web resources are included, new electronic databases added, and the catalog listing the holdings of the Library is constantly updated.

Computer Services of the Library

The Duckworth Library has been in the forefront of computing services on campus.  Currently the main library has 28 PC workstations, with an additional 9 wireless laptops for YHC community use.

Students need to use their YHC login and password at the Library computers.   This allows students to access class materials and the YHC server system to utilize shared space on the campus network.

Remote Access

All of the electronic resources available in the main Library building are also available everywhere else on campus.  Residence Halls and computer labs have identical access.  Many of the resources may also be accessed from off campus with special software available at the Library to current YHC students.

Collections

Traditional Resources

There are approximately 50,000 books and bound periodicals located in the library building.  These include recreational and educational materials.  The reference collection is downstairs, the circulating collection (Stacks) is upstairs.  The music collection is in the Clegg Building.

The Library receives more that 140 journals, periodicals and magazines ranging from Art in America to Rolling Stone to Wall Street Journal.

The Collection includes over 1500 videos and DVDs, including a wide variety of educational and entertaining topics.

Electronic Resources

The Library offers access to almost 100 electronic databases which index periodicals, full-text articles and Internet sites.  Three major groups of databases, EbscoHost, Proquest and Lexis-Nexis are available to the YHC community through the Library’s participation in GALILEO (Georgia Library Learning Online).  The Library independently subscribes to Oxford English Dictionary, Cambridge Companions to Literature, Historical New York Times, Naxos Music Library, JSTOR, BioOne .1 and BioOne .2 and Wilson Web Next Generation to meet the needs of our students.

 

In addition, the Library has electronic access to more than 50,000 electronic books through participation in netLibrary.

 

Special Collections

 

Merle Mann Artifact Collection

On display in the Duckworth Library are approximately 5000 pieces of Native American artifacts which were a gift of Mr. Merle Mann in 1950.  He collected items from all over the United States. These items are displayed in the lobby and on both floors of the Library.

Byron Herbert Reece Collection

Byron Herbert Reece was born in Choestoe, Union County Georgia, and lived all of his life in this area.  He achieved critical acclaim, if limited commercial success, for his poetry and his novels.  While writing and farming, he was also a student and on the faculty of Young Harris College.  He was employed by the College at the time of his death.  The collection includes letter, realia, and his personal book collection. A sampling of the collection is available here.

Theatre Young Harris Collection

The Library holds copies of the productions of the theatre Department of Young Harris College since 1978, including the Children’s Theatre productions.  We also house playbills, programs and other items related to the rich history of Theatre at YHC.

Vietnam Veterans Oral History Project

The Vietnam Veterans Oral History Project is a joint effort between the Library and Dr. B. Lee March, Professor of Political Science at YHC.  The Project, one of the largest in the South, collects recorded interviews with Vietnam Veterans as a way of preserving their stories and experiences for future generations.  The website is http://www.vietnamvetstory.org

Ogletree Lincolniana Collection
In 2003, the Rev. David Ogletree donated his collection of Lincoln memorabilia to Young Harris College.  This collection has over 1000 books, pamphlets, pictures, stamps, and other items representing America’s fascination with Abraham Lincoln. The Collection's web presence is here.

Bert Lance Presidential Signature Collection
Mr. Bert Lance of the Young Harris College Board of Trustees has placed his collection of signatures by U.S. Presidents on loan to the Library. The collection includes every president from George Washington to George W. Bush, as well as personal memorabilia from Mr. Lance's career in public service.