Peru State College
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Frequently Asked Questions
 
  1. What technology is available in the library?
    We have a full-fledged computer lab and offer wireless notebooks, printers, photocopiers, CD and audio tape players, telephones (locals call only), microform reader/printers, headphones, phonograph players, televisions with DVD and VCR players and yes-- even typewriters!

  2. What resources can PSC students access from off campus?
    We have an online collection that supports a variety of PSC online educational courses, degrees and certificates. In fact, the library offers an extensive array of online databases available 24/7, anywhere/anytime, for use by PSC students. This collection is accessible through the college library website and your student email password. The collection includes some 30,000 full text periodical titles and some 300,000 eBook titles. Of the 100,000 eBook titles about 70,000 titles are accessible through the library’s online catalog. These databases also include online study aids for learning, knowledge and skill development.

  3. What does the Bobcat Den offer?
    The Bobcat Den is our in-library coffee shop/snack area. The Den offers a place to stop and eat. It also offers cable television with a DVD and VHS player. And yes, you are welcome to enjoy your favorite soft drink, water or coffee throughout the library, except in the computer labs.

  4. There’s a grand piano in the library! Can anyone play the grand piano?
    Yes, so long as the music is not repetitive practice. Just ask a staff member at the main desk.

  5. What special collections in the library are generally used by all students?These collections include:
    • The Career Development Collection (about 200 current titles) used by students who are trying to determine what majors will produce the right job and life opportunity for them. This collection also offers materials for those students going on to graduate school.
    • The CLEP Collection (College Level Exam Program, over 30 current titles) helps students to prepare for college level exams and pass college courses without being formally enrolled in a course.
    • The Popular Reading Collection (about 300 current titles) consists of books helpful in addressing many of the concerns, issues and problems of college students as they make transitions through life and in college life.
    • The Study Aids Collection (more than 800 current titles, including instructional kits and memory cards) to complement course work.

  6. What special collections in the library are of high interest to many of the students?
    The high interest collections include
    • The PPST Collection (teacher test preparation materials, more than 40 current titles).
    • The Forensic Science Collection (over 200 current hardcopy and video titles). Though used extensively for course work, this collection is well read by students with a popular interest in forensic science.
    • The Curriculum Collections. Some 10,000 current titles not only support education students, but also provide great reading for all ages.
    • The One Room School House Collection provides a door into the past and the values and educational qualities still found in one room school houses today.
    • The Oversize Collection (about 3,000 books) provides excellent coverage of pictorial and graphical materials.
    • The Commemorative Collection (more than 10,000 volumes) provides a slice of history and education and book knowledge as reading and learning was for pioneer Nebraskans over 100 years ago.
    • The E.P. “Worth” Conkle Collection provides insights into writing for playwrights. E.P. Conkle was from Peru. As a young child Conkle would have sat in the library building among an audience of 1600 enjoying plays in a theatre which then took up the main floor of the library. After graduating, E.P. became a teacher in Nebraska, and later was a playwright, with plays on Broadway, and a radio and television screen writer. Note: E.P. Conkle’s students included Tennessee Williams (The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Night of the Iguana), Pat Hingle (106 movies and counting, including two Batman films), Tommy Tune (winner of nine Tony awards, top 1997 album Slow Dancing), and Fess Parker (Davy Crocket and Daniel Boone).
    • The Marion Marsh Brown Collection provides insights into writing for young adults, authored by Marion Marsh Brown. Have you read Swamp Fox? Remember the Disney Swamp Fox series in the 1960s? The library was well used by PSC graduate and awarding winning author Marion Marsh Brown, as local farm girl and later professor

  7. Who is the man in the painting above the fireplace?
    Above the fireplace hangs the picture of T.J. (Thomas Jefferson) Majors. T.J. Majors came to Peru before the Civil War, about the time of the first charter for the private college in Peru. When Majors came back to Peru from the Pikes Peak Gold Rush, T.J. started a mercantile store in Peru. Next he left Peru as a soldier and came back from the Civil War; he was then elected to the Nebraska Territorial Legislature. From his efforts and the efforts of others, the then private college in Peru was purchased by the brand new state of Nebraska. Thus Peru became the site of a first public higher education institution in Nebraska. At that time the college was just about the only college traveling north to Moscow, Russia, traveling South to Mexico City, and traveling West to Asia. The T.J. Majors building bears his name.

  8. What is the story behind the telescope which overlooks the main level?
    In the mid-1880s the telescope was housed in an observatory in the general area of the T.J. Majors building. Eventually the telescope was used by a local Peru boy, 14-year old Edison Pettit. The year was 1904 and the main floor of the current library building was just being finished as a Chapel and Convocation Center with a ceiling almost 40 feet higher than present day. As workmen were painting the ceiling with angels and cherubs young Edison got them to tie a string to the highest part of the ceiling. Near the floor level Edison tied a ball to the string. With this arrangement he studied the movement of the universe. Edison became an internationally renowned astronomer. In the 1930s he was the expert for questions as to whether there was life on Mars.

  9. I heard there used to be a swimming pool in the library building. What happened to the swimming pool that used to be downstairs?
    The college pool is now in the Wheeler Center. Yes, the library is not just a library, but it is also the building which housed the college swimming pool and the gymnasium in which the college students and Southeast Nebraska high school students played and enjoyed sports for more than seventy-five years. This changed when students, alums and citizen supporters dribbled their way to the State Capitol and gained funding support for the Al Wheeler Activity Center in the 1980s.

  10. Do you have to be a registered student to use the PSC Library?
    No. Our library is also for public use. In fact, we feature a dedicated children’s library for local school children, as well as to train our education students in library science. Ask our front desk staff for details.