Collections

Wallace Library provides resources that support teaching and research, and we work to forecast future needs. We focus on selecting materials that are scholarly, authoritative, and timely to sustain the curricular needs of our students and faculty.

Search the library catalog to find items in our collections. For help finding an item, please ask at the Information Desk in the Atrium on the library’s Main Level, and we’ll be happy to help you find what you’re looking for.

We recognize that users will encounter offensive or harmful language in descriptions of the works in our collection. Please read our statement on harmful language in collections, cataloging, and description.

Books

Beverly Lyon Clark Children’s Literature Collection

This non-circulating collection is located in Room 125 on the Main Level. Named for Beverly Lyon Clark, a longtime professor at Wheaton, the collection consists of late nineteenth- and twentieth-century children’s literature books.

Cole Memorial Collection

This non-circulating collection was established in 1931 through a bequest from William Isaac Cole, Treasurer from 1913 to 1926, Professor of Sociology from 1916 to 1925 and Trustee from 1926 to 1935, as a memorial to his brother, President Samuel Valentine Cole. It is shelved in the Cole Room between the First and Second Mezzanines. The Cole Room is only accessible by stair. Please contact us for assistance accessing this collection.

Comics and Graphic Novels

This collection, located on the Periodicals Level, contains comic books, graphic novels, zines, and books about comics and graphic novels. It is growing all the time, often by patron suggestion.

Cooking & Cuisine

This collection, located on the Periodicals Level, is a curated, sample collection of cookery books pulled from our stacks to promote visibility of these useful resources. There are many more on the Stacks Level in call number TX.

eBooks

You’ll find over 300,000 ebooks in the library catalog.

Faculty In Print

Our collection of books by Wheaton faculty, past and present, is located in the Merrill Room, outside the Clark Room at the top of the marble staircase. These copies do not circulate, but there is often a circulating copy in the Stacks.

Fine Arts Collection

Our comprehensive fine arts collection includes books on visual arts, architecture, sculpture, drawing, design, illustration, painting, print media, decorative arts, and arts in general.

The Fine Arts Collection is located on the First and Second Mezzanines of the Atrium, in the Clark Room between the First and Second Mezzanines, and in the hallway between the Clark Room, Cole Room and First Mezzanine.

Call numbers N-NA are on the First Mezzanine, call numbers NA-ND are in the Clark Room, and call numbers ND-NX are on the Second Mezzanine.

Oversized fine arts books are held in the hallway between the Clark Room, Cole Room, and First Mezzanine. These items have a location of Fine Arts Oversize.

General Collection

The majority of our collection is located on the Stacks Level in five shelving locations. Items in these locations are organized by Library of Congress call numbers.

Compact Shelving

Items with a location of Compact Shelving are found in the first stacks room in the collapsible shelving units. These items have call numbers beginning with M.

Folio

Items with a location of Folio are found on the Stacks Level in the second stacks room on a tall row of shelves behind the pillar near the Discovery Center entrance.

Oversize Folio

Items with a location of Oversize Folio are found on the Stacks Level in the second stacks room on a short shelf near the Discovery Center entrance.

Quarto

Items with a location of Quarto are found on the Stacks Level in the second stacks room, directly after Stacks call numbers beginning with Z.

Stacks

Items with a location of Stacks are found in the first or second stacks room on the Stacks Level. Call numbers A-R are found in the first stacks room. Call numbers R-Z are found in the second stacks room.

Health & Wellness

This collection, located on the Periodicals level, is a curated, sample collection of books on topics related to health and wellness pulled from our stacks to promote visibility of these helpful resources. There are many more books on these subjects on the Stacks Level. Contact us for assistance locating additional titles on these subjects.

Makers’ Collection

This collection, located on the Periodicals Level, is a curated sample of maker and craft resources pulled from our stacks to promote visibility of these helpful resources. Many more items similar to these are located in the stacks in call number TT.

Music Scores

Our large collection of music scores is located in compact shelving in the first stacks room on the Stacks Level.

New Books

Our collection of new books includes popular novels and non-fiction as well as academic works. These are located in exhibit spaces on the Main Level.

Reference

Our print reference collection includes dictionaries, encyclopedias, almanacs, atlases, and other reference works. This collection is located in the Reference Reading Room on the Main Level.

The library catalog contains hundreds of online reference works, including encyclopedias, dictionaries, atlases, and almanacs.

Seminary Collection

Located in the Scholars’ Lab on the Main Level, this circulating collection includes books from Wheaton Female Seminary’s original library.

Visiting Artists’ Collection

Located outside the Woolley Electronic Classroom on the Main Level, this is a circulating collection of publications by guest artists and lecturers who visited Wheaton.

Wheaton Authors

Our collection of books by Wheaton staff and alumni is located in the Merrill Room, outside the Clark Room at the top of the marble staircase. These copies do not circulate, but there is often a circulating copy in the Stacks.

Journals

Full-text electronic journals can be found in the library catalog, or search alphabetically by journal title.

Our collection of physical journals can be found at the end of the compact storage shelves in the first stacks room on the Stacks Level.

Journals on microform are located on the Periodicals Level along with a microform reader. If you require assistance with the reader, staff at the Information Desk on the Main Level will be happy to help you.

News

Boston Globe (1980-present)

ProQuest Central Boston Globe (1980-1996)

Use the ProQuest Central database for advanced searches of Boston Globe content from 1980 to 1996.

ProQuest Boston Globe (1997-present)

Use the ProQuest Boston Globe database for advanced searches of Boston Globe content from 1997 to present.

Chronicle of Higher Education (1995-present)

Use your Wheaton email to sign up at chronicle.com for access to the newsletter, job board and issues from 2015-present.

ProQuest Central Chronicle of Higher Education (1995-30 days ago)

Use the ProQuest Central Chronicle of Higher Education for advanced searches of Chronicle content from 1995 to thirty days ago.

New York Times (1851-present)

A free subscription to nytimes.com is one of the perks of being part of the Wheaton community. Follow these instructions to sign up.

ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The New York Times (1851-2022)

Use the ProQuest Historical Newspapers database for advanced searches of the New York Times.

Times Machine

Use the Times Machine to find and download articles from the print edition of the New York Times. Log in at nytimes.com, and then visit the Times Machine.

Frequently asked questions about the New York Times

How do I sign up for an NY Times account (on and off campus)?

How do I renew my New York Times subscription?

US Major Daily Newspapers (1980-present)

Advanced search across the five most respected U.S. national and regional newspapers:

New York Times
Washington Post
Wall Street Journal
Los Angeles Times
Chicago Tribune

Other Newspapers

Over two hundred other electronic newspapers can be found in the library catalog. Browse our news databases to find newspapers organized by subject and searchable news indexes.

Music and Other Sound Recordings

Music LPs (vinyl records) are located in the Music Seminar Room on the Stacks Level, and CDs are located in the drawers outside the door to the room. Ask at the Information Desk for assistance locating any needed materials.

Video

DVD

The library has more than 4,000 DVDs in our collection. Ask at the Information Desk or place a hold in the catalog.

VHS

Our collection of VHS cassettes has been digitized and can be found at Alexander Street Press.

Streaming Video

We have over 80,000 streaming video titles available through the library catalog.

Things

The Wallace Library holds a small but growing library of things.

Board Game Collection

Our collection of board games is located on the Periodicals Level. Please feel free to browse, sit and play games, or borrow them for up to seven days.

Other Items

Other items available for short-term loans at the Information Desk include:

Adapters (USB-A, USB-C, HDMI, etc.)
Apple and Android phone chargers
Button maker and supplies
Computer chargers (USB-C)
DVD reader/writers
Earbuds
Go-Pros
Keyboards
Microphones
Mice
Pen tablets
Ring lights
Tripods
USB drives
Webcams

Unique Digital Collections

Wheaton’s unique digital collections feature historical materials, works by students, staff, and faculty, and more.

Honors Theses

Honors Theses represent the best of original research undertaken by undergraduate honors students in various disciplines. The first honors thesis was prepared in 1928, and each year approximately 15-30 titles are added to the collection.

Marion B. Gebbie Archives Image Collection

The Archives Image Collection contains photos of the people, places, events and traditions unique to Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts.

Nike Yearbooks (1916-2020)

Most editions of Wheaton’s yearbook, Nike, have been digitized by the Internet Archive.

OpenPress

OpenPress is Wheaton College’s Pressbooks instance. Pressbooks is a simple book production software that makes it easy to write, develop, and share your ideas and to publish open educational resources and open textbooks, scholarly monographs, fiction and non-fiction books, white papers, syllabi, and more. OpenPress allows exports in multiple formats, including accessible EPUBs and PDFs specially designed for print-on-demand or digital distribution.

Browse the OpenPress catalog.

If you are Wheaton faculty or staff and are interested in creating or adapting an open textbook or OER on OpenPress, please go to the Getting Started page.

Rushlight

Rushlight, Wheaton’s literary and visual arts journal, was founded in 1855 by Lucy Larcom (1824-1893), who taught from 1854 to 1862 at what was then known as Wheaton Female Seminary. For the first few years of its existence, Rushlight served as both a newspaper and literary magazine. When Larcom named Rushlight, she proposed as a brief motto this couplet:

“A Rushlight flickering and small, is better than no light at all.”

Student Newspapers (1905-2018)

Student newspapers published at Wheaton Female Seminary and Wheaton College from 1905 to 2018.

Wheaton College Web Archive

Wheaton’s recent web presence, captured by Archive-It.

Other distinctive collections

Find the rest of our distinctive collections on JSTOR.