UW-Madison's College Library Meets a Variety of Students Needs

Duty calls for UW-Madison's College Library. (Wisconsin State Journal, 3/20/2011)

Excerpt: UW-Madison’s College Library recently touted a new acquisition, and it wasn’t the complete works of Dostoevsky or Byron.

It was the video game, Call of Duty: Black Ops.

The undergraduate library has had a video game collection since 2008. Since then, it’s grown to about 300 titles. Students checked them out nearly 5,000 times last year.

“We want to have an undergraduate library that very much connects with the passionate interests of students,” said Ken Frazier, director of libraries.

College Library has always had a reputation as a social library. An oft-cited 1994 Playboy article ranked it as the No. 3, non-tavern pickup spot for dates in the country (“There’s a significant amount of frivolity going on at College Library,” Frazier admitted).

But supporting the recreation needs of students is part of the mission of the library, said Kelli Keclik, public service librarian.