Library Services

Borrowing materials and equipment, research services and reserving spaces

Main Content

Borrowing and Lending Services

Checking Out Materials

Library items may be borrowed by users with a valid ACU ID card (current faculty, staff, and students); users within the ALC Consortium with a valid HSU, McM or HPU ID card or Abilene Public Library card; or users with a TexShare card.

Borrowing privileges vary for different users

ACU Undergraduate Students
60 items for 3 weeks with 2 renewals

Faculty & ACU Graduate Students
60 items for 5 weeks with 2 renewals

Abilene Public Library
5 items, 21 days, 2 renewals. DVD’s non-circulating to APL

ACU’s leased materials (McNaughton & New Books) are non-circulating to MCM, HSU and HPU, and APL libraries.

TexShare
2 items from general collection of each consortium library for 21 days with 2 renewals.

Abilene Christian Schools
20 items for 3 weeks with 2 renewals books and AV materials only

Learning Studio Equipment
Available to ACU staff, faculty, and students with the exception of projectors, which are only for faculty and staff. There is a $5.00 per day overdue fine for this equipment.

Library Accounts

ACU Library Account
Renew books, check holds and fines, and update personal information on your Abilene Library Consortium Account

Ebsco Account
Access articles stored during searches. Select “Update My Account” from the landing page to access your account information.

Interlibrary Loan Account
Check on Interlibrary Loans

NYTimes.com Access

The ACU Library is offering current students, faculty, and staff access to the digital version and content of the New York Times, including breaking news, multimedia, opinion, blogs, videos and more. To activate your access:

  1. Go to https://accessnyt.com
  2. Search for and select “Abilene Christian University”
  3. Create a NYTimes.com account using your @acu.edu email addressIf you have previously registered your @acu.edu email address on The New York Times site (paid or free), you will click the “Already have an account?” Log in here” link for Step 3, and login using your password that you have used for NYTImes.com previously.If you have been paying previously for a subscription to NYTimes.com using your @acu.edu email, then you will need to first cancel your paid subscription by calling/emailing NYT Customer Care at (800) 591- 9233  e-mail: customercare@nytimes.com

For questions, contact Mark McCallon at mccallonm@acu.edu

Library Study Room Reservations

Reserve a Study Room

Library Classroom and Event Space Reservations

Library classroom and event space requests must be submitted and approved through the centralized scheduling portal. Please read the following guidance page before submitting the request form.

Guidance for ACU Related Meetings and Events

ACU Meeting and Event Approval Request Form

Library Hours

Sunday: 2:00pm-Midnight
Monday-Thursday: 7:30am-Midnight
Friday: 7:30am-7:00pm
Saturday: 10:00am-7:00pm

Contact Us

221 Brown Library
ACU Box 29208
Abilene, TX 79699
Ph: 325-674-2344
Email: library@acu.edu

Research and Scholarship Services

ArcGIS

A Geographic Information System (GIS) is a system for management, analysis, and display of geographic information. ArcMap is the primary application used in the ArcGIS platform, and is used to perform a wide range of common GIS tasks such as:

  • Visualize geographic information
  • Use geoprocessing to perform analysis of datasets
  • Compile and edit datasets
  • Manage geodatabases

ACU has a limited number of seats for ArcGIS Desktop and ArcGIS Online, and also provides access to ArcGIS through VMWare. If you are interested in accessing any of these, please email Mark McCallon at mccallonm@acu.edu.

For more resources, check out Linkedin Learning which offers many free courses on GIS and data training.

Data Management

Data management is a new initiative from the Brown Library aiming to help researchers in all stages of the data lifecycle. In the Spring semester we hope to here information on creating a data management plan, software available for working with data, as well as information on saving and sharing your data.  In the mean time check out our Data Management Research Guide.

For a more detailed look at managing and sharing data, the UK Data Archive has created a best practices guide for researchers.

Data Visualization

Data visualization allows a new aspect to data analysis by allowing the researcher to view their data in a new light and to force the data to be understandable to the average viewer. Because data can take on so many different modalities and is used in some form in every discipline, it is important to utilize all of the tools available to you. Charts, graphs, timelines, tables, and box-and-whisker-plots are just some of the more recognizable ways to visualize data, but there are other options and tools out there for you to choose from.

Through the Innovation Foundry ACU students, faculty, and staff can get assistance with:

  • Data Concepts for Teaching and Learning
  • Visualization for Poster/Session Presentations
  • Software Tools for Research such as:
    SPSS, Tableau, BI, Adobe Illustrator, Excel and Google Sheets

Linkedin Learning courses on Data Visualization and all software listed above are available to all students, staff and faculty.

Publishing

The ACU Library houses ACU Press, increases the discoverability of faculty and student publications, and supports Open Access publishing.

ACU Press and Leafwood Publishers

ACU is one of only seven faith-based institutions to sponsor a university press. ACU press publishes academic titles in the humanities, theology, church history, and Christian education. Its trade imprint Leafwood Publishers reaches general Christian readers with memoirs, Bible studies, devotionals, and more. The ACU Press is located on the second floor of the library.

Institutional Repository and Open Access Publishing

The ACU Library hosts student theses and dissertations and many faculty publications in ACU’s institutional repository: Digital Commons @ ACU. Resources hosted in the repository are free for everyone to access. More information about Digital Commons and open access, in general, is available in our Open Access and Scholarly Communications Support Guide. For technical support with Digital Commons, contact DC@ACU.edu. For general inquiries about scholarly communications or open access publishing, contact the Scholars Lab at scholarslab@acu.edu.

Hosted Journals

The ACU Library hosts several peer-reviewed open access journals in our repository. We offer the platform, training, and expert consultation to create or migrate academic journals to Digital Commons. To get started, contact Laura Baker at bakerl@acu.edu.

Archival Materials

The institutional repository also houses many archival journals, manuscripts, images, and other resources relating to the history of ACU or Stone-Campbell studies. These resources are curated by ACU’s Special Collections. We also partner with other libraries and publishers to host digital content, such as with the Stone-Campbell Teaching Archive. Special Collections is located on the first floor of the library.