Library Resources

Libraries are the heart and soul of any college, and Knox is no exception. More than just resource centers, the libraries at Knox will surely become a familiar and cherished places to pursue your studies.

Library facilities

Centrally located on campus, Knox's Seymour Library is one of the most aesthetically appealing and comfortable college libraries in the nation. But you're going to like more about it than its looks.

Seymour Library is a student's dream, with more than 300,000 volumes, subscriptions to hundreds of journals, magazines and newspapers in both print and online, and access to online reference sources and ebooks. Helpful and enthusiastic library staff work to ensure students get the materials they need, utilizing local collections, the I-Share network of Illinois research and academic libraries and the larger library borrowing community. The building's interesting and unique spaces and quiet study rooms are rich in history and provide students with a study atmosphere steeped in the academic tradition.

In addition to housing Knox College's archives covering the more than 170-year history of the College, the Special Collections and Archives has exceptional collections of primary source material useful for undergraduate research projects, including: the Finley Collection on Midwestern history; the Strong Collection of 18th- and 19th-century maps, reports and photographs; and the Hemingway Collection of manuscripts and first editions from Hemingway and his "Lost Generation" contemporaries.

Knox also operates two branch library facilities: The Kresge Science-Mathematics Library houses scientific and technical books and periodicals. The science library also houses two specialized collections: the Environmental Studies Collection and the Green Oaks Collection, containing materials related to the environment and ecology in general, and Midwestern prairie ecology in particular. The Green Oaks Collection resides at the Green Oaks field station during the Green Oaks Term to support student research at this residential facility.

Online resources

The Library subscribes to an ever expanding collection of online materials, including electronic journals, newspapers, reference sources and databases such as LexisNexis and JSTOR. All of the Library's online resources, including the library's catalog, are available to you no matter where you are -- students studying abroad have the same access as students studying on campus.

Knox College Library is a full academic member of the Alliance Library System, a governing member of the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois (CARLI), a participant in the I-Share integrated library system and resource sharing program, and a voting member of the Center for Research Libraries.