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About Us

Main (1st) Floor Collections

Popular Collection

The popular collection contains contemporary fiction and non-fiction titles selected to meet the recreational reading interests and enjoyment of the students, faculty, and staff. These titles are primarily from reviews in respected publications such as the New York Times Book Review, Atlantic, Harper's, and the like. This collection shall consist of paper as well as hard cover titles as identified from current or recent best sellers list as identified by Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, and New York Times.

a few shelves from the browsing collection

 

Print Reference Collection

The print reference collection contains handbooks, encyclopedias, and guides to scholarship in every discipline.

Youth Collection

The youth literature collection supports our students in their study of early childhood education, elementary education, middle school education, secondary education, education of the hearing impaired, speech pathology, and English. The purpose of the collection is to help students in these programs to identify and examine works that can be effective in literature-based instruction across the curriculum at the K-12 level. The collection is not intended to be comprehensive; rather, we offer a sample of the best of children’s literature, including Caldecott and Newbery Award winners. Other well-loved classics and contemporary works of distinction may be acquired as appropriate and as funding allows. Additionally, the collection shall consist of materials in the subjects that will supplement and/or support student teachers in their classroom internships.

You can find books in our youth collection in two ways:

  • Watch this video to learn how to search the library's discovery system for books in the Youth Collection.
  • Use our themed book lists to find books in our Youth and Pat Scales collections as well as related instructional resources.

Young People's collection

 

 

AV Collection

Our AV collection can also be found on the main floor. It features over 3,000 DVDs and over 1,000 music CDs. The DVD collection includes popular titles, Criterion collection films, documentaries, and more.

AV Collection

William Cobb Collection

The William Cobb Collection, located on the west end of the Carmichael Library main floor, was donated in 2010. Cobb, an Alabama writer and winner of the 2007 Harper Lee Award, collected first editions of books that are signed by their authors.

William Cobb collection

Top (2nd) Floor Collections

Main Circulating Collection

The main circulating collection, located on the top floor of the Carmichael Library, includes over 155,000 print volumes.

Main circulating collection

Anna Miller Archives & Special Collections

Anna Crawford Milner Archives and Special Collections Entrance and Sign

At UM, Special Collections tend to fall into the following categories

  • Books of regional importance such as town/county/area histories, Bibles belonging to local clergy/churches, geological studies, etc
  • Books, or books containing chapters, authored by faculty members 
  • Books important to UM's history such as notable collections or materials purchased as part of the original library collection
  • Works by scholars/speakers who lectured on campus

To learn more, visit the the Anna Milner Archives and Special Collections site.

 

The Pat Scales Special Collections

The Pat Scales Special Collection is a research collection of children’s and young adult literature. Founded in 2016, the collection is the direct result of a donation by Ms. Scales, who donated over 4,000 books and other materials to Carmichael Library at the University of Montevallo.  The collection includes signed, first edition Newbery and Caldecott Award books, interactive (pop-up) books, children’s books of historical significance, intellectual freedom papers, correspondence, and marginalia.

The mission of the Pat Scales Special Collection is to promote individual and collaborative study and research of children’s and young adult literature, both on campus and in the wider educational and scholarly community.

To learn more, visit the Pat Scales Special Collections page.

Pat Scales Collection