The Jean Russell Quible Department of Collections and Technical Services provides print and digital resources to all of our learners, educators, and researchers. The collections and technical services team makes the complex work feel simple and keeps our community powered. Here are few snapshots of how they’re meeting the needs of our patrons in an ever-changing world. 

The deparment includes 34 team members with expertise in:
• Acquisition • Collection Management, Strategy, Processing, and Assessment • Data Analytics • Metadata • Borrowing & Lending

Our total collection has grown by more than 500 thousand titles in the last four years.

Our collection continues to grow year over year. The way a book request is fulfilled is different for every book and requester but the bottom line is, in nearly every case we’ll get you that book!

What our users are saying.

“I wanted to say that Interlibrary Loan has been amazing during COVID. So thankful for all you do.”
- Melissa Ripepi, Graduate Student, Sociology

“You have absolutely no idea how much I appreciate how quick this went through.” - Cora Carman, Graduate Student, Aerospace/ Ocean Engineering

“I received the rush article within 10 minutes of placing the order. Really great customer service. The physician just texted me that he is in receipt of the article. Kudos to you and your team for the quickest turnaround ever! Your turnaround time is simply amazing.”
- Rita McCandless, VTCSOM Librarian

"For a meta-analysis, I needed access to some 200 articles not in the VT library.  I worked with business reference librarian, Ellen Krupar, who helped me secure copies through Interlibrarly Loan. It was a quick process and staff at Interlibrary Loan was very quick in getting the articles; a few days at most. For individual articles it is rare to wait for more than a day. Often the article is available within a few hours." - Florian Zach, Assistant Professor,  Howard Feiertag Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management

eResource growth and use since 2017: eBook titles have nearly doubled, databases have grown by about 20%, streaming media has grown from from a few thousand to almost a hundred thousand, eJournal titles have jumped from about 300 thousand to nearly 500, journal downloads have increased from 3 to 3.7 million, and database searches have grown from 4 million to over 10 million.
FY20 collections expenditures; eJournals represent more than 50%, with the second and third largest categories being databases and ebooks respectively.

eJournals represent over 50% of our FY20 collections expenditures.
Read more about why access matters and how the University Libraries is working to meet the need.

Hokies access our eResources from 135 countries.

As alumni, you still have access to some resources!

Check them out.

We make thesis and dissertations electronically available to the world!

Since 2012, the collections processing team has scanned almost 7,200 Virginia Tech theses and dissertations into the VTechWorks database. These titles, from 1996 and earlier, were previously only available through print.

Stacked together, the more than 850,000 scanned pages would be as tall as a 20 story building!

The Interlibrary Loan team contributes to a global network.

This map offers a snapshot of the University Libraries lending and borrowing activity across Virginia, the U.S., and the world from July 2018 - February 2021. The nearly 50,000 lendings and borrowings, across almost 1,500 institutions, keep our researchers connected and supported.

Lending and borrowing activities span all 50 U.S. states with dense activity along the mid-Atlantic coast and highlighted locations including NASA Langley Research Center and the National Science Foundation.
Lending and borrowing activities span across Virginia with highlight locations such as the University of Virginia and Fairfax County Public Library.
We lend and borrow to countries across the globe. Our top five countries we lend and borrow to are Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, New Zealand, and Australia.

Created by Trevor Finney