Collections

General Collections

STACKS

The library’s main circulating collection includes over 180,000 materials supporting the research needs of the college. The stacks are located on floors 3A, 2A and 1A.

PERIODICALS

The library subscribes to a variety of popular and scholarly journals, magazines, and newspapers. Current issues are kept in the Franzen Center and the South Reading Room. Older issues are bound and stored on floor 1.

GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS

As a government document depository, the library collects materials published by the federal government and the state of Wisconsin. Government documents are located on floor 1.

REFERENCE

The reference collection includes encyclopedias, dictionaries, style guides, handbooks, and other materials useful for finding background information on a topic. It is located in the Franzen Center. Reference items do not circulate. For a reference database online, check out Credo Reference. This is a great starting point for research projects. Search in hundreds of encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauri, quotations, and subject-specific titles, as well as audiovisual materials.

Special Collections

Rotating Collections in Franzen Center: Librarians curate collections on current topics. These rotate and are on display in the Franzen Center.

COLLEGE ARCHIVES

The Ripon College Archives is dedicated to preserving the history of Ripon College from its inception to the present. It contains records, yearbooks, college newspapers, photographs, manuscripts, letters and other materials related to college history.

WESTERN AMERICANA COLLECTION

The Dale L. Morgan Memorial Collection of Western Americana, donated by Mr. Todd Berens, includes materials covering the Lewis and Clark Expedition, the fur trade, mining, the Mormons of Utah, the California Gold Rush, the transcontinental railroad, and other topics related to the American west. The collection is located in the North Reading Room and is available for checkout.

WISCONSIN’S OWN LIBRARY

Wisconsin’s Own Library (WOL) is a collection of books and pamphlets written, edited or compiled by a person who has lived in Wisconsin. Owned by the General Federation of Women’s Clubs of Wisconsin, the collection currently resides in Lane Library’s South Reading Room, and is available for checkout.

FACULTY COLLECTION

The library collects books and other materials authored by former and current Ripon College faculty. These items are located on floor 3A in the Franzen Center.

ALUMNI COLLECTION

This collection includes works authored by Ripon College alumni. It is located on floor 3A in the Franzen Center.

JUVENILE COLLECTION

The library actively collects winners of the Caldecott, Newberry and other children’s literature awards to support Ripon College’s childhood education and development courses. Items in this circulating collection are interspersed with the stacks and labeled “Juvenile Literature.”

CLOSED STACKS

These rare and fragile materials may only be used in the library. Ask at the circulation desk for access to items from the collection.

Electronic Collections

For off-campus access to most of our databases, click on the links below and enter your Ripon network ID and password. If you have any questions, please refer to our Off-Campus Access Guide.

Comprehensive Databases

Credo Reference
Great starting point for research projects. Search in hundreds of encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauri, quotations, and subject-specific titles, as well as 200,000+ images and audio files, and nearly 200 videos.

Academic Search Complete
Covers a wide range of academic disciplines, with more than 8600 periodicals available in full text.

JSTOR
A full-text archive of over 400 scholarly journals in the arts and sciences. Issues from the past three to five years may not be available.

ProQuest Research Library
Includes both popular and scholarly periodicals covering a variety of subjects, with over 3300 titles available in full text.

Arts & Humanities Databases

African American Historical Serials Collection
The African American Historical Serials Collection is an archive of periodicals that document the history of African American religious life and culture between 1829 and 1922. It includes newspapers and magazines, plus reports and annuals from African American religious organizations, including churches and social service agencies.

American Antiquarian Society (AAS) Historical Periodicals Collection
More than 7,500 American magazines and journals from the AAS, documenting the life of America’s people from the Colonial Era through the Civil War and Reconstruction. Subjects covered include art, music, literature, law, politics, religion, philosophy, science, family history and ethnic studies. It is divided into five chronological series, which can be searched simultaneously:

Civil War Primary Source Documents
From the New-York Historical Society, Civil War Primary Source Documents is an archive of unique manuscripts chronicling the American Civil War as it was experienced. Providing both Northern and Southern perspectives, it covers all aspects of the war, including reactions and impressions from the home front.

Humanities E-Book Project
A fully searchable collection of over 3,000 e-books in the humanities.

Humanities International Complete
Broad coverage of humanities disciplines, with over 1200 full-text journals and books.

Literary Reference Center
Contains author biographies, work overviews, and literary criticism.

MLA International Bibliography
An index of scholarly works on literature and languages from around the world.

Poetry & Short Story Reference Center
Full-text classic and contemporary poems,short stories, biographies, essays, lesson plans and learning guides.

Social Science Databases

Business Source Premier

Full-text journals, company profiles, industry reports, and more.

EconLit
The American Economic Association’s index to over a century of economics research. Includes journal articles, books, and dissertations, with many titles available in full text.

Education Research Complete
Covers scholarly research in education, with full-text access to 1400 journals and 550 books.

ERIC
Access to records of journal articles and other education-related materials, with links to full text when available.

ProQuest Social Science Journals
Over 550 full-text journals covering a range of social science topics.

ProQuest Statistical Abstracts
1400+ individually indexed tables (with attached spreadsheets) of statistics on the social, political and economic organization of the United States. Information available both by searching and browsing. Over 550 full-text journals covering a range of social science topics.

PscyInfo, PsycArticles, and Psychology Journals
These three databases combined offer the full text of over 650 journals in behavioral science and related disciplines. They can be searched simultaneously via the above link.

SPORTdiscus Full-text and abstract database of both scholarly and popular journal and book literature on sports medicine, exercise science, physical therapy, sports, fitness and related topics.

Sports Illustrated Magazine Archive: Back issues of Sports Illustrated from 1954-2000.

Sports Medicine and Education Index The Sports Medicine and Education Index contains abstracts from scholarly and professional literature from 1970 to the present. These abstracts feature a wide variety of content, ranging from physical education curricula, to sports medicine, to dance. Other coverage includes sport law, kinesiology, motor learning, recreation, standardized fitness tests, sports equipment, business and marketing, coaching and training, and sport sociology/psychology. Health education and physical therapy are also covered as they continue to become more prevalent in our society.

Science Databases

ACS Publications
Full-text access to American Chemical Society journals and archives.

arXiv
e-print service in the fields of physics, mathematics, non-linear science, computer science, quantitative biology, quantitative finance, and statistics. arXiv is maintained and operated by the Cornell University Library, a private not-for-profit educational institution, with guidance from the arXiv Scientific Advisory Board.

ASM Journals
Full-text access to American Society for Microbiology journals and archives.

BioOne
Full-text journals in biology, ecology, and environmental science.

BioMed Central
Peer-reviewed open access journals in the health sciences.

Consumer Health Complete Interface
Consumer-oriented health content, from mainstream to holistic medicine.

GreenFile
A collection of scholarly, government, and general-interest titles covering environmental studies.

HighWire Press
Open access scholarly journals in the sciences.

PubMed
Citations for biomedical literature, with links to full-text content when available.

SciFinder
Provides integrated access to several Chemical Abstracts Service databases plus Medline. If you are a new user to SciFinder, please follow this link to register for the first time. If you are a returning user, you may sign in here.

Web of Science
Citations and abstracts, including highly cited articles and books.

E-Book Databases

EBSCO eBook Collection
There are nearly 120,000 eBooks in this collection representing a broad range of academic subject matter, including titles from leading university presses.

Humanities eBook Project
A fully searchable collection of over 3,000 e-books in the humanities.

Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg offers over 42,000 free ebooks: choose among free epub books, free kindle books, download them or read them online.

Free Scholarly Databases

Digital Public Library of America
Millions of texts, images, audio and video files, and other primary source materials digitized by libraries, archives, museums, and other organizations.

DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals)
An interdisciplinary database of free, full-text, scholarly journals.

Google Scholar
Google’s interface for searching citations to scholarly literature.

Hathi Trust
Digital versions of the holdings of several major research libraries. Includes nearly three million works in the public domain, which are freely available.

Newspaper Databases

Archive of Wisconsin Newspapers
Full-text daily and weekly Wisconsin newspapers from 2005 to 90 days ago, plus select historical state newspapers from the 1800s and 1900s. Each newspaper is available cover to cover in a searchable PDF format.

Newsbank
Newsbank provides access to over 14,000 newspapers around the world including local and regional sources like the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, The Chicago Sun Times, The Ripon Commonwealth, and more.

Newspaper Source Plus
Recent issues of U.S. and international newspapers, newswires, and television and radio news transcripts.

Newspapers.com

Historical newspapers archive from the 1700s – 2000s containing thousands of well-known regional, state, and small local newspapers in the United States and other countries.

New York Times Digital
New York Times Digital: Known as an “academic pass” all current students, faculty, and staff have complete access to all the content of the digital New York Times. The pass includes all news, archives, special features, special educational content, and much more. For more information including how to sign up, please read here.

New York Times Digital Microfilm
New York Times Digital Microfilm content from 2008-Present.

U.S. Newsstream
Key national and regional sources including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Newsday, Chicago Tribune and over 80 local titles like the Appleton Post-Crescent and the Green Bay Press Gazette. Content is updated daily, with same-day publication access to over 250 titles.

Additional Resources

Consumer Reports Magazine
Full-text PDF version of the popular consumer magazine.

Ebsco Open Dissertations
Full text and bibliographic records for 800,000+ theses and dissertations from more than 26 colleges worldwide.

Kanopy
Over 10,000 films to stream. Documentaries, World Cinema, Educational Films and more.

NoveList
If you find yourself wanting to take a study break with a work of fiction, search here for recommendations, reading lists and more. If Lane Library does not have the latest fiction book you seek, the Ripon Public Library is nearby and more than willing to feed your need to read.

Government Information

USA.gov
The U.S. government’s official search engine for finding information from local, state, and federal government agency websites

Congress.gov
Federal legislative information, including bills, resolutions, laws, and other congressional activities.

FDsys
Free online access to official publications from all three branches of the federal government.

Government Documents

Books

Library Catalog

Search for government documents held at Lane
Library. You may choose to do an advanced search, limiting the collections to “Federal Documents” and/or “State Documents.”

Location of Government Documents
Our physical collection can be found in its very own room on the 1st Floor.

General indexes and catalogs

USA.gov

Major portal to US government information available online.

FedStats

Gateway to statistics from over 100 federal agencies.

FDsys

Online access to official publications from all three branches of the Federal Government. Eventually to replace GPO Access.

Catalog of U.S. Government Publications

Catalog of U.S. government publications cataloged and distributed (including electronic-only titles) since 1976.

Congress.gov

Library of Congress organized site; provides access to congressional bills, bill tracking and text, conference reports and the Congressional Record from 1989.

Federal Government

Federal Government Information

Looking for resources about our government? In general, they are divided into three different branches of government: executive, judicial and legislative. Executive branch includes links to the Office of the President and Cabinet Offices. Judicial branch includes the office of the Attorney General, the Supreme Court, and other U.S. courts, including Trade, Claims, and Tax courts. The legislative branch includes the House of Representatives and the Senate, Congressional Directories, the Statutes at Large and the Code of Federal Regulations, information on floor debates and roll call votes, and more.

Executive

The White House

Official site including news from the White House blog and press briefing room, photo and video archives, and live streams of events around the country with President Barack Obama and administration officials. Also includes links to the cabinet offices.

Weekly compilation of presidential documents

The official publication of presidential statements and other materials released by the White House Press Secretary, 1993 – present. Published every Monday.

A-Z Index of U.S. Government Departments and Agencies

Provides information including website link, parent agency and related agencies for various departments and agencies.

American Presidency Project

A digital project of the University of California at Santa Barbara. They have consolidated, coded, and organized into a single searchable database a variety of documents including historical presidential papers, party platforms, candidates’ remarks, Statements of Administration Policy, documents released by the Office of the Press Secretary, and election debates and results.

Judicial

Department of Justice

Includes Reports of the Attorney General, and links to legal reports and publications covering topics such as ADA for Small Businesses to Your Rights Under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.

RFI

Provides links to all the Federal courts: Supreme Court, Court of Appeals, District Courts, and Bankruptcy Courts.

History of the Federal Judiciary

Includes biographies of Supreme, Circuit, and District Court judges since 1789.

Supreme Court Decisions 1937 – 1975

Full text and searchable.

U.S. Court of Claims

Money claims made against the Federal government, including tax refund claims.

Legislative

United States House of Representatives

Links for finding your representative, house schedule, votes, bills, and reports.

Senate

Provides links to senators, committees, legislation and history.

Congressional directory 1994-present

This is the official directory of the U.S. Congress. Provides short biographies and additional data such as committee memberships and terms of service.

Congress.gov

Library of Congress organized site; provides access to congressional bills, bill tracking and text, conference reports and the Congressional Record from 1989.

GPO’s Federal Digital System (FDsys)

Provides free online access to official publications from all three branches of the Federal Government.

Legislation

Basic Sources for Legislation and Regulations

Looking for specific bills or regulations? Below are a few good starting points.

Congressional Bills

1993 to the present, through FDSys.

Code of Federal Regulations

Annual editions from 1996 to the present, through FDSys.

Congressional Documents

1975 to the present, through FDSys.

Congressional Record

Official daily record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress from 1994 to the present through FDSys.

Congressional Reports

These reports originate from congressional committees and deal with proposed legislation and issues under investigation from 1995 to the present through FDSys.

Federal Register

Official daily publication for rules, proposed rules, and notices of Federal agencies and organizations, as well as executive orders and other presidential documents from 1994 to the present through FDSys. For browsing by subject, especially in current issues, use the FR site itself.

Fedlaw

This all-purpose legal research site is operated by the Center for Regulatory Effectiveness.

Fedlaw

Codification of federal laws. FDSys has editions from 1994 to the present.

State Government

State Government Links

Looking for information on a certain state? Here are a few great places to start your search:

State Government Websites

USA.gov links to main state web page plus links to state agencies by topic, and state courts, governors, and legislators

State News

Stateline.org, State Policy & Politics; Daily news service of Pew Center on the States.

State Data Center Network

Partnership created in 1978 to make data available locally to the public through a network of state agencies, universities, libraries, and regional and local governments.

Wisconsin Government

State of Wisconsin

State of Wisconsin homepage. From here, you can find information about specific state agencies and offices. For example, you could find the website for the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), or you could find the website for the office of the Governor.

Legislative Documents Search (Online)

This is an electronic archive of Wisconsin laws, statutes, and other legislative information. Electronic availability depends on the year.

International

International Sources

Looking for basic information on a specific country? Start with the CIA World FactBook. This website provides information on the history, people, government, economy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for 267 world entities.

International Organizations Databases

United Nations Data (UNdata)

Link to a database with a variety of statistics on various countries in the world.

World DataBank

Link to the World Bank databases; combines the World Development Indicators and Global Development Finance.

International Intergovernmental Organizations

United Nations

Main link to the UN – begins by allowing a choice of language. Links to main UN bodies (organs).

General Assembly of the United Nations Documentation

Search aganda, resolutions, UN journal, and draft proposals from the United Nations.

International Court of Justice

Latest decisions and cases.

World Bank

Research, publications and data available.

International Monetary Fund

Research, publications, data and statistics available.

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

Research, publications, data and statistics available.

World Health Organization

Shapes the health research agenda, sets norms and standards, articulates evidence-based policy options, provides technical support to countries and monitors and assesses health trends.

European Union

Europa.eu is the official website of the European Union. It provides basic information on how the EU works, the latest EU news and events, and provides links to EU information on the websites of EU institutions and agencies.

International Labour Organization

Research, publications, data and statistics available, such as the global wage report and databases of labor statistics.

Statistics

Government Data and Statistics

Looking for specific data? Start here.

Data.gov

The purpose of Data.gov is to increase public access to high value, machine readable datasets generated by the Executive Branch of the Federal Government.

FedStats.gov

Links to more than 100 U.S. Federal agencies that provide statistics for public use.

State and County Quick Facts

Quick, easy access to facts about people, business, and geography.

American Community Survey

Social, economic and housing characteristics, demographic and housing estimates, and Public Use Microdata Samples (PUMS) data.

DataFerrett from Census.gov

DataFerrett is a unique data analysis and extraction tool-with recoding capabilities-to customize federal, state, and local data to suit your requirements. (FERRETT stands for Federated Electronic Research, Review, Extraction, and Tabulation Tool.)

US Department of Labor Demographics

Several programs at the Bureau of Labor Statistics make significant amounts of data available for specific demographic categories. Demographic categories used by BLS include sex, age, race, and ethnic origin. The data by age generally are limited to persons of working age, defined as 16 years and older. Data on race generally are for blacks and whites. Data on ethnicity are confined chiefly to information on persons of Hispanic origin.

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