Collections and Scholarly Resources
Guiding Principles
Adaptive: We analyze data to understand the evolving interests, priorities, and experiences of our patrons. We develop the Libraries’ collection through both automated processes and human interventions. We select resources and develop services focusing on flexible and accessible resources that are adaptive and responsive to curricular needs.
Collective: We use the library’s extensive staff and faculty expertise to connect the JMU community with more resources than it would be possible to obtain through traditional acquisitions methods and limited budgets. We leverage our local, regional, and national networks as active collaborators in student learning, teaching, and research. We recognize the future is shared.
Inclusive: We are committed to providing accessible collections that reflect a variety of perspectives and lived experiences. We select and maintain resources that prioritize the user’s experience and that reflect the diverse ways that humanity communicates knowledge.
Sustainable: We champion the success of our campus community by investigating, promoting, and publishing in open and alternative models of scholarly communications. We promote the dissemination and impact of JMU scholarship through our institutional repositories and open educational resources. We recognize sustainability requires community-driven, open infrastructure.
Total Collections Over 2.9 Million Items Strong
The JMU communities’ teaching and scholarship inform the Libraries’ ever-evolving physical and online collections. The Libraries’ general collections are robust and diverse. Additional primary source and other unique materials are in the Libraries’ Special Collections, Music Library, and Scholarly Commons.
VIVA Support
JMU Libraries is a member of the Virtual Library of Virginia (VIVA) consortium. VIVA is comprised of academic libraries in Virginia. Their mission is to build an “equitable, accessible, and robust infrastructure of library resources and services for Virginia higher education students and faculty.” Read more about VIVA’s Mission and Vision. Through VIVA’s strong support, JMU users have access to many additional resources.
These resources are also included in JMU Libraries’ Library Search.
Collections News
Updated April 6, 2023