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The University of Maine maintains a wide variety of special educational and research facilities and supports many special educational, research, and public service programs. A few of these that are of most direct interest to undergraduate students are described below.
The University Libraries
The Raymond H. Fogler Library, Maine’s largest research library, contains more than 1 million volumes, 1.6 million microforms, and access to more than 37,000 online serials and more than 200 databases. Fogler Library is the regional depository for federal government publications and houses approximately 2.3 million U.S. Federal, Maine State, and Canadian federal and provincial documents plus the U.S. Patent and Trademark Depository. It is also the Science, Technology and Business Research Library for the State of Maine and serves as the resource for meeting the science, technology and business information needs of the citizens of state.
The Darling Marine Center Library, located in Walpole, Maine, is part of Foglers Science and Engineering Center and has a collection of more than 13,300 volumes focused on marine studies.
Through URSUS, the online union catalog of the University of Maine System Libraries and other participating libraries - the Maine State Library, the Maine State Law and Legislative Reference Library, and the Bangor Public Library - faculty and students have access to over two million volumes. URSUS indexes the majority of the print and non-print materials for the libraries, including books, serials, microforms, sound recordings, maps, government documents, and other audiovisual formats. In addition to a bibliographic description of each item, URSUS provides location and status information. Fogler Library also participates in Maine InfoNet which supports MaineCat, a statewide catalog that includes URSUS along with most of the other library collections in the state.
Fogler Library provides access to electronic resources available to the university community. The electronic resources include indexes, databases, electronic reserves, electronic journals, electronic books, web sites, and other material selected or created by librarians. The library also provides online reference service through Ask-a-Librarian at http://library.umaine.edu/reference/VR/AboutFoglerVR.htm and also allows patrons to view their own record and renew their books through URSUS at http://ursus.maine.edu/screens/user_services.html.
The Reference Department is the contact point for general reference assistance. The Department provides research assistance, database searching, and conducts instruction in the social sciences, humanities, business, and education. Individual research assistance is available by appointment. The Department is also the service point for Federal and Canadian documents.
The Science and Engineering Center service the scientific reference, instruction, and research needs of the University Community and public. The Center houses Maine’s only Patent and Trademark Depository Library.
The Special Collections Department contains an extensive collection of published bibliographical, historical, and descriptive works on Maine, as well as Maine literature. These books, pamphlets, and state documents provide extensive important insights into Maine cities, towns, counties, people, and institutions. A substantial body of original source materials complements them. The department also houses rare books and university publications and records. Since 1998 it has been the home of the William S. Cohen Papers.
Students and faculty may borrow books from any of the UM campus libraries using the online requestor function in URSUS, andthrough MaineCat, which allows online borrowing among the member libraries. Other materials may be requested from Fogler’s Interlibrary Loan Department, which provides desktop delivery for many requests.
Additional information about materials and services can be found at the Fogler Library web site http://library.umaine.edu. Please use the web site to access URSUS, the online indexes and databases, electronic resources, and other collections. The web site also gives detailed information on the library departments, collections, services, and contacts. The general telephone number for the library is 207-581-1666. Please call 581-1664 for library hours.
The University of Maine Museum of Art, located in Bangor, houses a permanent collection exceeding 5700 works of art, 20% of which are accessible in public spaces throughout the University campus in Orono. Highlights of the early collection included works, primarily on paper, by John James Audubon, Marc Chagall, Francisco Goya, Childe Hassam, Edward Hopper, Kathe Kollwitz, Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, and James M. Whistler. More recent acquisitions include works by artists such as Ralph Blakelock, Georges Braque, Mary Cassatt, Honore Daumier, George Inness, Diego Rivera, Pablo Picasso, and Giovanni Battista Piranesi. The Robert Venn Carr ‘38 Collection is comprised of 285 pieces, and includes works on paper by many contemporary masters including Max Beckmann, Jim Dine, Roy Lichtenstein, and Robert Rauschenberg.
The Museum’s permanent collection also celebrates the long heritage of Maine art and artists. Included in the collection are examples by Maine artists such as Berenice Abbott, Marsden Hartley, Winslow Homer, John Marin, Carl Sprinchorn, and Andrew Wyeth.
The department of Art Gallery, in Lord Hall on the Orono campus, displays traveling exhibits as well as work by UMaine students and members of the faculty.
The Hudson Museum is located in the Maine Center for the Arts on the UMaine campus. Hudson Museum exhibits and programs explore anthropology as the study of humans and their reliance on culture. The museum’s collections and exhibits function as educational and research aids for University faculty, students and the general public. The permanent collections include one of the finest assemblages of Prehispanic Mexican and Central American materials in the United States. The collections also include materials from the Native American cultures of the Northwest Coast, the Plains, the Southwest, local Penobscot, South America and the Arctic, as well as artifacts from Oceania, Asia and Africa. The Hudson Museum offers permanent, temporary and outreach exhibits, teacher workshops, lectures and children’s programs.
The Page Farm and Home Museum documents the history of Maine from 1865 to 1940 through a collection of farm machinery and household items from that period. The museum building itself is a part of Maine agricultural history. The large, post-and-beam barn is the last of the original agricultural buildings dating from the founding of the University of Maine in 1865. Careful renovations display the collection over its three floors while preserving much of the building’s original character.
The Hutchins Concert Hall in the Maine Center for the Arts presents a full spectrum of performances ranging from classical music to bluegrass, from avant-garde dance to Broadway musicals, jazz to folk and ethnic music, comedy to family entertainment, country to rock and much more. Isaac Stem and Yo-Yo Ma, The Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Arlo Guthrie, Jean Redpath, The Royal Winnipeg Ballet, The Peking Acrobats, Marcel Marceau, Leontyne Price, Rudolf Nureyev, Johnny Winter, Greg Allman, The Modern Jazz Quartet, Peter, Paul and Mary, Jerry Seinfeld, Dana Carvey, Dennis Miller, Kris Kristofferson, Lee Greenwood, Bob Dylan, and Dave Matthews are some of the artists who have appeared there.
This 280-seat facility is primarily the site for faculty and student recitals, vocal and instrumental ensembles, concerts, and a few Maine Center for the Arts performances. Various dance and theatre productions are also presented. A state-of-the-art recording studio that supports a course in recording arts is a part of the Minsky Hall facility.
The Darling Marine Center is the marine laboratory and field station of the University of Maine. Located on the Maine coast just 100 miles south of Orono, the 170 acre campus is situated near a wide variety of marine habitats including rocky coast, sandy beaches, marshland, and mudflats. The center campus is composed of 23 buildings totaling nearly 100,000 sq. ft. including classrooms, laboratories, faculty and graduate student offices, a marine library, a dining hall, a residence hall, a SCUBA diving support facility, and a Flowing Seawater Laboratory designed for culturing live marine organisms. The Center includes a wide variety of modern research instrumentation, and it has a modern fleet of vessels for educational and research purposes. Internships are available for undergraduates enabling them to conduct research at the Center during the summer months. The School of Marine Sciences offers a unique Semester-by-the-Sea program for undergraduate marine science majors in which students live and study at the Center during a fall semester.
The Maynard F. Jordan Planetarium is a resource for students and the public. It conducts labs for courses in astronomy, and presents public programs. This is Maine’s first digital planetarium, a domed theater where visitors can see the night sky produced by a traditional planetarium projector or the Omnidome video system. Under the dome in Wingate Hall, visitors can experience cosmic adventures for all ages through the the school year. Public showings are offered on weekends (free to UMaine students) and private star shows can be arranged for workshop, class, family and summer camp occasions.
The Jordan Observatory, a small, domed building next to the Memorial Union, houses an eight-inch Alvan Clark refractor telescope and several smaller instruments that students can use to view many of the wonders in the sky. Astronomy students use the facility for studies on weeknights, and student volunteers operate it on weekends for the general public.
Founded in 1967, the Canadian-American Center is one of the leading institutes for studying Canada in the United States, and is a National Resource Center on Canada designated so by the U.S. Department of Education in 1979. Designated a National Resource Center on Canada by the U.S. Department of Education in 1979, the Center coordinates an extensive program of undergraduate and graduate education; contributes to the continued development of Fogler Library as a major research library on Canada; promotes cross-border research in the humanities, social science, natural sciences, and professions; publishes Canadian-American Public Policy, a referred series of occasional papers focusing on contemporary issues in U.S.-Canada relations; operates Canadian-American Center Cartography; and directs outreach programs to state, regional and national audiences which include Canada Week, the Atlantic Canada Teachers Institute, and the Atlantic Canada Faculty Institute.
Establishing the Canadian-American Center reflects both local and national needs. At the local level, ties between Maine and Canada are long-standing and varied. Although part of New England, the state of Maine is virtually surrounded by the Canadian provinces of Quebec and New Brunswick. And, almost half of the state’s population has ancestral roots in Canada. Economic connections, from energy to tourism, are close, and environmental issues frequently demand international cooperation.
More broadly, Americans need to know much more about Canada. Growing integration of the U.S. and Canadian economies aided by the North American Free Trade Agreement; common environmental concerns, particularly over-harvesting of natural resources and pollution of common waterways and airspace; and long-standing social and cultural ties are significant reasons for studying the Canadian-American relationship. In addition, many Canadian developments have considerable relevance for the United States, including the continuing debate in Canada about the place of minority languages and cultures in confederation; the role of the Canadian government in social and welfare issues; the emphasis that Canada has placed on international organizations and multilateral cooperation; and the valiant efforts made by Canadians to develop a distinctive cultural tradition in the face of homogenizing tendencies of mass culture. For Americans, Canada acts as a mirror, allowing us to better understand ourselves.
The Maine Folklife Center (MFC) houses the nationally distinguished Northeast Archives of Folklore and Oral History. This collection of several thousand tape recordings of oral histories and musical performances, plus thousands of photographs, documents such subjects as the traditions of the Maine lumberwoods and river drives, women’s folklife, coastal and maritime occupations, and textile folk arts and artists. MFC publishes the scholarly monograph series Northeast Folklore and the semi annual newsletter, Maine Folklife.
The Center for Community Inclusion and Disability Studies (CCIDS) is an interdisciplinary research unit engaged in a broad range of initiatives related to improving the quality of life for individuals with developmental and other disabilities. CCIDS conducts research, evaluation, and policy analysis in the areas of education and early intervention, child care, health, employment, housing, and other aspects of community living for individuals with disabilities and their families. As Maine’s federally designated University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities, CCIDS is part of a national network and collaborates with other universities and research centers throughout the country and internationally to address critical areas in disability-related research, practice, and public policy. Graduate and undergraduate students in Disability Studies from any discipline may become involved in the Center’s research activities through coursework, independent studies, projects, and graduate assistantships. For additional information, please contact the Center for Community Inclusion and Disability Studies, 114 Corbett Hall, Phone (V/TTY) 207/581-1084 or 800/203-6957, or website: www.ccids.umaine.edu.
The Women’s Resource Center (WRC) promotes and maintains a close relationship between the women on the University of Maine campus and women in the larger Maine community. Located at 102 Fernald Hall, the WRC works with women of all ages and offers mentoring opportunities with women activists, support for women in career fields where they are under-represented, gender equity programs for pre-college girls and educators, educational programming and actions supporting reproductive rights, and campus initiatives addressing sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking. Leadership, skill development and research opportunities are available to University of Maine undergraduate and graduate students who are work-study and work-merit eligible. The WRC assists women who have specific needs and special concerns and brings together women with similar values and goals. Each year, the WRC embarks on new initiatives that reflect the interest and needs of the campus community. The Center serves as a resource for individuals and organizations, offering information and referrals for women’s programs and services, on and off campus in order to create a broader understanding of the diverse experiences of all women. In addition to an extensive collection of books, periodicals and videos of interest to women, the Center provides an accessible meeting space for small groups, collaboration with the Student Women’s Association, and information about events of interest to women. To find out more about the WRC, go to our web site: http://www.wrc.umaine.edu/ or call (207) 581-1508. |
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