A sunny day at the library, spring 2009 The "Butte College Library","39.64917","-121.64409" , also known as the Frederick S. Montgomery building, completed renovations in time for the fall 2007 semester. It's a three story building that not only includes access to technology and books, but classrooms too. They have over 70,000 books which includes a number of uncatalogued criminal justice books.
First Floor
1st floor of Butte College Library The first floor isn't really the main floor but it includes Media Services for distance learning and enrichment, periodicals, and plenty of seating with a great deal of natural lighting. Periodicals include local and national newspapers and a variety of magazines.
Main Floor / Second Floor
The main entrance provides access to the main floor. The main floor does not provide access to LB classrooms but only circulation desks, reference, many maps (seemingly ignored), interlibrary loan, new books, reserve textbooks, and computers for research. Furthermore, the Center for Instructional Excellence is housed on this floor. This center provides a space for faculty and sometimes student events or meetings. Generally the space is used by special guests and special events hosted by the library.
Copiers are available at 10 cents a copy; they do not duplex! Printing also costs 10 cents a page. Print cards and copy cards can be bought at the Butte College Bookstore although a new system has been installed at the library's print station for adding money to print cards. It will not provide change. Print cards are not the same as copy cards!
The primary computer lab takes up a good deal of the main floor. Software has included Microsoft Office 2007 and Open Office 3.0. Generally, Butte College workstations are NOT compatible with Microsoft Works! Students who only have access to Works at home should beware of that and save documents to a more general format such as RTF.
Bathrooms are available on the north end.
Third Floor
Over 70,000 books at the Butte College Library Main circulation is on the second floor as well as a criminal justice library. The floor includes five group study rooms for those that wish to use collaborative learning techniques. Alternatively, students may quietly study on this floor. Bathrooms are available at the south end — and they tend to be cleaner than most.
Classrooms
From within the library, only one classroom is accessible and that is a computer lab generally used for library workshops. Students must go to the backside of the library building to gain access to LB (Library) and MC (Media Center) classrooms. The backside of the building faces the Life Sciences Building and the Learning Resource Center.
Workshops
Electronic Resources
The library at Butte College offers many of the same electronic resources that major universities do. Student fees go to help pay for access but they tend to be underutilized. Resources includes databases such a EBSCO, art and music databases like Oxford, medical references, dictionaries, popular encyclopedias, eBooks from NetLibrary, and statistics (such as RAND).
Butte College also offers "Ask a Librarian" functionality, which can be useful if students run out of leads when researching a topic. And finally, Butte College has their LPAC online to check for a book or renew a book.
Power Outlets for Laptops
The library only has power taps available for student laptops along some walls where there are individual study desks. A good place to find outlets is on the 3rd floor (main circulation) along the southern wall near the bathrooms. It's a good idea to bring your own power surge protector.
WiFi is available pretty much all over the campus and as such there are no problems getting a portable computer online from within the library.
