The First Year Experience: Library Resources and Services

The Arne Nixon Center for the Study of Children’s Literature is an internationally renowned research center in the Library at California State University Fresno. The Center is one of North America’s leading resources for the study of children’s and young adult literature. The growing collection of 70,000 books, periodicals, manuscripts, original art, and papers of authors and illustrators has an international and multicultural emphasis with a focus on diversity and inclusion. Its materials are available to anyone for use in the reading area.

Use this service to reserve any of our Library spaces, in advance or for immediate use. Whiteboard markers are available for checkout at the Circulation Desk. After completing your reservation, you will receive an email with a link to confirm. You must click on the link to confirm your reservation. If your reservation is not confirmed within one (1) hour, it will be automatically cancelled.

The Library provides over 150 computer workstations for access to the Library catalog, the Internet, and a range of Microsoft Office applications. These include some specialized workstations with various graphics, multimedia and GIS software.

The Music & Media center (3rd Floor North) contains the Ronald J. Harlan Music Collection of scores and sound recordings, a media collection of videorecordings, and listening and viewing facilities. Books about music are located in the main bookstacks. Seven computer workstations with graphic design software, and two workstations with music composition software are available for student use.

Students, faculty/staff, and the general public can submit print requests using the Pay for Print system to our Ray Morgan devices that can produce color prints, black & white copies, and scans to email.

Open to Fresno State students, faculty, and staff of all beliefs and practices. Swipe campus ID card for access. Location: 3rd Floor, South Wing, Room 3203 (across from the Arne Nixon Center)

The following three areas of the library are designated Quiet Study Areas: Quiet Study Floor, Solarium, and the Table Mountain Rancheria Reading Room. Please be conscientious regarding talking and noise levels in these areas. Tech Lending has noise canceling headphones available for additional noise reduction in library spaces.

The Special Collections Research Center is comprised of several specialized book collections, manuscript collections, and the University Archives. Anyone is welcome to use our collections, but all materials must be viewed in the Woodward Family Reading Room.

Your subject librarian can help you find sources for your research, navigate library services, find publishing opportunities, and much more. Contact your librarian for more information or to schedule an appointment.

The Teacher Resource Center (TRC) is a collection of teaching materials used in pre-Kindergarten through grade 12 classrooms. It provides assistance with the identification and location of various teaching materials related to specific topics and delivers services associated with these materials. The collections are intended primarily for Fresno State faculty and Fresno State teacher education students who are creating lesson/unit plans for their coursework, practicums, or student teaching. Other interested individuals, including local schoolteachers and residents, may use the collection too.

See the student and faculty catalog of tech equipment available and instructions for reserving equipment.

The Library is now offering the latest video technology to anyone in the Fresno State community in our new Video Studios. The studios are designed to be spaces for creating video content, vlogs, and working on cross-curricular projects. In conjunction with the Library’s media labs, the video studios help expand the community’s ability to create, adapt, and edit video media in one space in the Library.

The library is now offering XR (extended reality) technology in our new Innovation Space. This technology offers the opportunity to interact with environments and objects that are not physically available to students, or with which they might not otherwise be able to interact. It provides the ability to access a broad tool set for working on cross-curricular projects. This allows us to study, create and research things that might have otherwise been dangerous or impossible. In conjunction with the Library’s Media Lab, the XR equipment helps expand the community’s ability to create, study, and simulate in one space in the Library.