Collections

Reflecting the history and heritage of the campus as an American Indian boarding school, Briggs Library organized and continues to maintain a collection of materials focusing on the off-reservation boarding school education model.

Briggs Library has an assortment of atlas materials covering state, national, and world geographical areas as well as historical perspectives. Special language volumes are also available in Spanish and French.

Briggs Library frequently purchases popular reading titles from a variety of current bestseller lists. Books include both fiction and nonfiction selections. Students, staff, and faculty are invited to browse the titles, relax in the comfy chairs, and check out books of interest.

The Career Services Library Collection  provides information on possible career opportunities for liberal arts college graduates as well as specific Morris programs. 

Morris has a strong tradition in jazz, so it’s not surprising that the Briggs Library CD collection has a strong representation of jazz CDs. However, thanks to the selection by music faculty and a special Rodney A. Briggs Library Associates purchase initiative, classical music is also well represented along with popular and contemporary music styles.

The purpose of this collection is to serve the needs of the students and faculty of the Division of Education and to provide resources for current and prospective teachers. In addition to supporting UMM’s teacher education program, community educators and children are also invited to use the materials.

The purpose of the Circulating Games Collection is to make popular tabletop games available for the enjoyment of students, staff and faculty as well as community members. Games are located near the main desk located on the Main (second) floor. Up to two games per individual may be checked out. A valid library card is required.

The DVD collection is located on the second floor. Public computers and large group study rooms are equipped to play DVDs.

The Faculty Learning and Teaching Collection includes resources on a wide variety of topics related to the teaching profession, including career development, professional writing, teaching techniques and pedagogy.
Books on trends in higher education and faculty welfare are also included.

The general collection is organized using the Library of Congress call number system. The collection is split between various library floors. 

First Floor has call numbers: A-N
Third Floor has call numbers: P-R
Fourth Floor has call numbers: S-Z

In addition to the 70,000 plus electronic journals, Briggs Library maintains a small number of current print subscriptions. These current issues are shelved on the main

 floor of the library. Back issues and bound volumes of the journal collection are located (in alphabetical order by title) on the 4th floor.

The "Little Mags" collection was donated by Richard Grant in 1993. He collected several titles of these subscriptions that often included irregular, non-traditional literary topics of relatively unknown writers.

Briggs Library purchases and houses music scores for solos and for small ensembles. These scores are located in a room on the third floor of the library, behind the curriculum library.

Briggs Library has a wide assortment of encyclopedias, dictionaries, guides, style manuals, and handbooks covering every subject. The reference collection numbers more than 6,000 volumes. Volumes are shelved near the open study area on the main floor of the library. Atlases are also shelved in this area.

Briggs Library is proud to identify and collect works created by University of Minnesota Morris faculty, staff, and students.

The library seeks the assistance of current and past UMN Morris affiliated individuals in order to identify and obtain other scholarly works either in monographic, serial, or other formats. 

The West Central Minnesota Historical Research Center (WCMHRC) was established in 1971 under funding provided by the Minnesota Historical Society and contains materials from the greater west-central Minnesota region.

Briggs library proudly includes among its holdings the University of Minnesota West Central School of Agriculture Collection (WCSA). This collection represents the records and materials of the West Central School of Agriculture, a residential high school that was located on the Morris campus site from 1910 until 1963.