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Message from the Dean
About us
- Mission, vision and values
- Annual reports and strategic plan
- University Library Committee
- Collections
- TCU Library history
- Library employment
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Reviewed 12/13/2012 by James Lutz .
Message from the Dean
Welcome to the Mary Couts Burnett Library at TCU. We expect that you will find the library an intellectually rewarding experience, both in the building and on our website.
We have an extraordinary collection of electronic and print materials available for you. Our staff focuses on quality customer service. Your experience with the library will be rewarding both from the perspective of the material you discover and from the perspective of your interactions with our staff. Whether you are looking for a wonderful place to study or a place to meet your friends, you will find the Mary Couts Burnett Library the place for you. We welcome your comments at any time.
Sincerely,
June Koelker, PhD
Dean, TCU Library
Texas Christian University, Box 298400
Fort Worth, Texas 76129
817.257.7114 (voice) 817.257.7282 (fax)
j.koelker@tcu.edu
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Reviewed 12/19/2012 by Tracy Hull .
Mission, vision and values
Vision Statement
To enhance the university experience by creating a world-class library that facilitates exploration and scholarship.
Mission Statement
To provide intellectual resources, innovative technology tools, and an inspiring physical and virtual environment to serve TCU’s diverse community of learners, supported by approachable and resourceful staff.
Core Values:
- Service - excellence, inclusiveness, and dedication in serving our diverse stakeholders
- Integrity - adherence to principles, attentive to ethical considerations, and respectful of confidentiality
- Access - Optimal, uncensored, and equitable access--whether independent or facilitated--to worldwide information and services
- Innovation - novel, flexible, and creative approaches to services, technologies, and resources
- Teamwork - superior results through cooperation and mutual respect
- Environment - comfortable, safe, and convenient spaces conducive to study, work, teaching, and research
- Scholarship - knowledge management, promotion of information literacy, and support for intellectual endeavor
- Resource sharing - expanded opportunities through collaboration with internal and external partners
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Reviewed 12/13/2012 by James Lutz .
Annual reports and strategic plan
Enhancing the TCU University Experience: The Library’s Strategic Plan, 2012-2014 .
Annual Reports
- Fiscal Year 2012 (June 2011 - May 2012)
- Fiscal Year 2011 (June 2010 - May 2011, PDF)
- Fiscal Year 2010 (June 2009 - May 2010, PDF)
- Fiscal Year 2009 (June 2008 - May 2009, PDF)
- Fiscal Year 2008 (June 2007 - May 2008, PDF)
- Fiscal Year 2007 (June 2006 - May 2007, PDF)
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Reviewed 12/13/2012 by James Lutz .
University Library Committee
Committee charge:
The University Library Committee studies library needs in light of academic programs and advises the Dean of the Library on matters of policy, development of resources, and optimal ways of integrating library programs with our academic activities. The committee
- serves as liaison between the faculty and librarians,
- and advises the administration regarding library needs.
The committee chair, a member of the faculty, is charged with the coordination and supervision of committee activities, including an annual report to the Faculty Senate.
2011-2012 committee members:
Faculty: Ex officio: |
Liaison: Undergraduate students: Graduate students: Administrative oversight: |
Meeting minutes:
October 1, 2010 (.pdf)
October 15, 2009 (.pdf)
February 15, 2009 (.pdf)
Annual Report:
2010 Annual Report (.pdf)
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Reviewed 12/19/2012 by Tracy Hull .
Collections
Students and faculty have access to over 1.5 million books and audio-visual materials and over 79,000 current journals, electronically and in paper. In addition, the library provides access to over 300 databases, many of which include the full text of journal articles, from the library website. Among the general collections, areas of particular emphasis include American history, English and British literature, music, mathematics, nursing and business. The Library has been a depository for federal documents since 1916 and participated in the Texas depository library program for more than 60 years. Portions of the U.S. documents collection date as far back as the eighteenth century. The library was designated a European Union Documentation Centre in 1996.
In addition, the library has several collections of interest.
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Reviewed 12/19/2012 by Tracy Hull .
TCU Library history
Who is Mary Couts Burnett?
The story of the library's namesake, Mary Couts Burnett, is at once tragic, poignant and heroic. Born in 1856, she was one of five daughters of Colonel James Robertson Couts, a prominent banker and rancher in Parker County. The Colonel is known to have been an admirer of Addison Clark who, with his brother Randolph, founded in Thorp Spring the school which would eventually become Texas Christian University.
Raised in Weatherford, Mary first married Claude Barradel and was widowed. After Barradel's untimely death she was wooed and won by wealthy cattleman S. Burk Burnett, himself a widower. The one child born to the couple, S. Burk Burnett, Jr., died as a young man.
By 1920 the relationship between husband and wife had grown tense and Mrs. Burnett expressed fears that her husband was trying to kill her. Burnett claimed in court that his wife was suffering from "hallucinations" and won a sanity judgement against her. He was further successful in having her committed to a limited asylum in a private Weatherford home where she was kept virtually a prisoner until she engineered her own release on the very day, in 1923, of Burk Burnett's death. With the aid of her physician she then set about to free herself and to obtain her "widow's half" -- Texas being a community property state -- of the estate which Burnett had actually willed almost entirely to his granddaughter, Anne Burnett. She succeeded in both these efforts.
Then, in December of 1923, she surprised and shocked TCU by informing the university it would receive nearly her entire estate in trust -- something over $3 million (equivalent to about $36 million in 1991 dollars). Before this moment, Mrs. Burnett had no known ties with or interest in the university. One story has it that Burk Burnett, a notoriously rough-edged character, had plainly expressed that no church or school would ever get any of his money so that Mary's gesture may have been one of defiance towards her late husband.
Though she did not live to see it fully completed before her death, she was driven past the library building which would bear her name when construction was well advanced in 1924.
TCU Library milestones
1892 ‑ University receives a gift of 1,045 books which is added to two previous gift collections and a library is formed
1898 ‑ Library is designated a U.S. government document depository
1910 - Fire on March 22 destroys the Main Building housing the library of 8,000 volumes valued at $15,000
1911 ‑ TCU moves to Fort Worth; library is 24'x 36' room on second floor of the Main Building
1916 ‑ Library is re-designated a U.S. government document depository due to move to move to new Congressional District
1925 ‑ Mary Couts Burnett Library is dedicated on February 27; holdings number 30,000
1955 ‑ William Luther Lewis Collection of English and American Literature donated by the Amon G. Carter Foundation
1959 ‑ Library building first expansion is dedicated on March 5; holdings number 330,000
1972 ‑ Friends of the TCU Library is organized on January 28
1981 ‑ Froissart's Cronycles is added as library's millionth item in January
1983 ‑ Library's second addition designed by Walter Netsch of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill is dedicated on March 25
1993 ‑ Library offers access to research databases on the Internet; users with modem can access databases and library catalog 24/7
2001 - Library implements Information Commons
2008 -
Library offers building access to students 24 hours - 5 days a week during the traditional academic year
Information from Walking TCU: A Historic Perspective by Joan Hewatt Swaim. Fort Worth: Texas Christian University Press, 1992 and Prologue: The TCU Library to 1983 by Betsy Feagan Colquitt. Fort Worth: Texas Christian University Press, 1983.
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Reviewed 12/19/2012 by Special Collections Staff.
Giving to the library
Whether you would like to honor someone with your gift of a book, or you would like to enhance academic resources for TCU students in a given academic area, we welcome your contributions. Please contact:
Dr. June Koelker, Dean,
MCB Library, TCU Box 298400,
Fort Worth, Texas 76129
817.257.7114
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Reviewed 12/19/2012 by Tracy Hull .
© 2009-present TCU Library | Texas Christian University
TCU Box 298400, Fort Worth, TX 76129 | +1 817.257.7117 | fax: 817.257.7282
