Library Collections
The Library has developed a number of in-house collections on specialized topics of particular interest to researchers. Many of these materials have been made possible due to funds from grants and from private endowments.
These resources are in a variety of formats: books, periodicals, personal papers, microfilm, CDs, DVDs and sound recordings. They are housed in the main Malpass Library or in the branch libraries.
Archives and Special Collections
Among the many resources of this unit are:
- Baxter-Snyder Center for Icarian Studies
- WIU Libraries is home to the world's largest collection of materials relating to the Icarians, a French utopianist community who lived in Nauvoo in the 1850s, and later in other locations in the United States.
- Center for Hancock County History
- This collection contains materials relating to one of Illinois' most historically significant counties. Primary focus is on the Mormon period in Nauvoo (1839-1846), but other periods are also collected.
- Civil War Collection
- The Civil War Collection contains letters, diaries, and other materials documenting the western Illinois experience in the war.
- Decker Press Collection
- WIU Libraries is home to the single largest collection of books and other manuscripts relating to the Decker Press, a vanity poetry press located in Prairie City, Illinois from 1937-1950.
- Regional Historical Society Newsletter Collection
- This collection features Historical Society newsletters from the west-central Illinois counties of Hancock (1987-), McDonough (1982-) [including Colchester Area Historical Society (1995-)], Rock Island (1966-), and Schuyler (1969-).
- WIU Digital Image Collection
- One of the largest such collections in Illinois, the WIU Digital Image Collection contains over 4000 fully catalogued and searchable images relating to the history of WIU and west central Illinois.
Film Collections Searchable Database
These DVDs and CDs circulate from the main stacks of the Malpass Library and its branches. They are available as the result of grant funds from CARLI (Consortium of Academic Research Libraries in Illinois). An enhanced, searchable database of these films has been developed which provides not only a list of titles available through the Library, but also additional information about the film, director and reviews.
- African Diaspora Films Collection
- Gay, Bisexual, Lesbian and Transexual (GBLT) Films Collection
- Homeland Security Film Collection
Index to Plays In Collections
This search tool identifies plays in the Library's holdings. It is used as a supplement to title and author searches performed in WestCat as records in that database may not fully reflect the contents of an item.
Jeff Leibovitz Memorial Holocaust Collection
This memorial collection is a variety of materials related to the Holocaust which are especially suitable for middle and high school teachers and students. It is located at the WIU-Quad Cities Library.
Map Collection
The Map Collection is located at the southwest corner of the fourth floor of Malpass Library. It is part of the Government & Legal Information Unit and contains many U.S. government maps including the popular USGS topographic maps. A wide range of atlases, Illinois county plat books and GIS books are also important elements of the collection.
Periodical Reprint Series
In these primary source materials, experience the political uprisings of the America in the first half of the 1900s, Great Britain in the first half of the 1800s, and the feminist and anti-war debates of the turbulent 1960s. Many of these items are located in the Microfilm section on the second floor of Malpass Library, but others are in library storage. They can be obtained by asking for assistance at the Circulation Desk.
- American Periodicals of the 18th Century (pdf)
- Shelved in microfilm cabinets.
- HERstory (pdf)
- Shelved in microfilm cabinets.
- Negro Periodicals of the United States (pdf)
- Shelved in Periodicals Storage.
- Radical Periodicals in the United States (pdf)
- Shelved in Periodicals Storage.
- Radical Periodicals of Great Britain (pdf)
- Shelved in Periodicals Storage.
- Underground Newspapers Collection (pdf)
- Shelved in microfilm cabinets.
Petersen Ornithological Collection
The Petersen Collection is comprised of approximately 1,000 unique titles of rare and high quality ornithological books, periodicals, banding cards and records dating back to 1886. Although the major focus of the collection is birds, other animal classifications are broadly represented.
Swofford Popular Reading Collection - (list updates)
The paperback fiction and non-fiction general reading collection on the main level of the Malpass Library is supported by this memorial endowment.
Visual Culture / Graphic Novel Collection
The graphic novel literature form - defined by Merriam-Webster as "a fictional story for adults presented in comic-strip format and published as a book" - certainly has its roots in the comic book genre. But as avid graphic novel readers know, the genre ranges from simple to complicated narratives, often embraces complex themes, at times tackles sensitive subjects and is certainly not limited to adults.
