Computing and Information Resources

Mission / Vision

The mission of the Kennesaw State University Library System is to support and further KSU’s mission of being a powerful, diverse, student-centered, and research-driven university. The Library System carefully cultivates resources, services, and spaces that enhance teaching, learning, scholarship, and creative endeavors for our users. These efforts focus upon supporting student success - especially advancing undergraduate programs, supporting the graduate programs, furthering research with relevance, and promoting lifelong learning.

The vision of the KSU Library system is to advance student success, lifelong learning, and research with relevance through teaching, access, and discovery with the expertise and dedication of our professional faculty and staff.

Library Resources

The Kennesaw State University Library System holds a growing number of carefully cultivated resources and services designed to assist students and faculty. Collections include over 104,000 e-journal titles; 800,000 e-books; 14,000 Federal Serial Sets (approximately 9.7 million pages); 62,000 federal maps; 1,300,000 music scores; over 10,000,000 audio recordings; and 100 collections of data-sets representing over 12,000,000 data points. The KSU Library System proudly hosts and maintains the university’s institutional repository, the Digital Commons, which is home to 13,374 resources and over three million downloads worldwide.

Because the KSU Library System is a participating member of GALILEO Interconnected Libraries (GIL), students and faculty have access to and borrowing privileges from the collections in all of Georgia’s public college and university libraries as well as a number of private university libraries. GALILEO and GIL provide access to the collections of the finest doctoral research university libraries in the state. The comprehensive holdings of Georgia’s virtual library system include over 10 million volumes and thousands of full-text periodicals accessible through 384 electronic databases. Consequently, the discipline-specific library resources available to support the KSU colleges and programs are extensive. KSU is also a charter member of LYRASIS, a national and international bibliographic cooperative in library resource management. LYRASIS uses its large library membership to secure discounted purchasing prices and licensing fees for a wide variety of eResources and eContent materials.

Federal Government Documents Depository

Located at the Johnson Library on the Marietta campus, the KSU Library System houses a partial Federal Government Documents Depository for the 11th Congressional District.

Library Services

As a physical and digital library system, we emphasize access to library services regardless of location or need, whether that is, on campus, at off-campus locations, and/or via distance learning technologies. The physical libraries are open about 100 hours per week on each campus with extended hours during exams. For research assistance, the libraries offer both assistance in the libraries as well as a 24/7 chat service where users can receive remote assistance from a librarian at any time. The Library System also offers in depth one-on-one research consultations, both remote and in person. Online library resources are accessible via individual user login authentication all day, every day, and online and distance education students also benefit from ubiquitous access to high-quality information resources. Each library offers orientation sessions and information literacy instruction in a variety of formats, including course integration. For resources external to the KSU Library System, the libraries offer robust borrowing and loan programs. The university’s Archives and Special Collections are also located within the libraries and are available via appointment.

Study Spaces

Both individual and group study spaces are available at both libraries. In the Sturgis Library, the ground floor provides a community space where students have access to-computers and printers. The 1st floor learning area is called OwlSpace, and it is a “noisy” space where students are free to collaborate and work on group projects. OwlSpace also includes computers and multiple presentation rooms. The third floor offers a quieter study area containing individual study cubicles as well as seven glassed-in study rooms for quiet group study, and a printer and microfilm reader.

In the Johnson Library, the first floor Hive area is a “noisy” community space where students have access to computers and communal seating.  The second floor provides access to quiet study rooms for group study and individual study cubicles.

Borrowing Privileges

KSU students and faculty have borrowing privileges not only from the KSU Library System but also from all of the member institutions in the University System of Georgia as well as the Atlanta Regional Consortium for Higher Education (ARCHE). Through the SuperSearch discovery tool, students can instantly access millions of resources including books, ebooks, journals, databases, videos, and government documents. Mobile versions of the library catalog and databases are available. Interlibrary Loan services may be used for items not owned by one of the participating Georgia libraries.

Digital Commons

The KSU Library System hosts the DigitalCommons@Kennesaw State University. The Digital Commons is a digital resource for KSU’s intellectual and creative out-put. With the increase in KSU’s graduate programs, the Library System uses the Digital Commons to self-publish dissertations, theses, and capstone projects and make them available online. These resources are fully searchable by keyword or author and are indexed by major search engines such as Google Scholar.

For more information about the libraries visit our webpage at library.kennesaw.edu.