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The extent and comprehensiveness of the College's Learning Resources System is dictated by four factors related to the college's unique character:
Basic Collections
The Academic Programs Basic Collection includes the general liberal arts collection as well as special program holdings, according to standards established by the State Education Department, the National Library Association, and the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools.
Instructional Modules Collection
The library of Instructional Module is a circulating library containing 33,000 volumes.
An instructional module is a teaching tool developed and used by a Faculty Facilitator in the Individualized Instruction sequence of courses offered by the College. Each module is organized around one or several competencies that the student must master, and is oriented towards developing important cognitive processes in each student. A module may include general or interdisciplinary contents or be related to a specialized field such as business, education or human services.
Special Collections
These collections focus on a specific area of interest and research.
Represents the work of the first Puerto Rican Congressman. The extensive archives include his involvement in the development of the Puerto Rican community in New York and includes historical material on the congressional deliberations during the Watergate years and the presidency of Richard M. Nixon.
The Map Collection, a donation of the American Geographic Society, represents the Society's illustrious work over many years, as a leading and world renowned institution of scholarship, exploration, and map-making. The Map Collection contains 9,000 maps depicting the historical development of the world, its geography, population distribution and other features of its physiography. The Manhattan Campus, purchased by the College in 1980, is housed in the former building of the American Geographical Society.
This collection chronicles as reflected in books, periodicals, letters, clippings, documents, taped interviews, and photographs, from published materials and collections, from mainland and the Island. With the support of the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Diaspora Project resulted in publications and exhibits aimed at preserving a vital phase of Puerto Rican history, and strengthening the network of persons concerned with the work of cultural preservation. It is distributed between the two campuses and consists of 1,300 volumes.
The Latin Music Collection is currently in development. Its primary objective is to acquire and maintain a repository of Puerto Rican and Latin music during the last one hundred years. The collection is new, and still quite small, totaling 5,000 records and tapes of classical, popular and folkloric styles of Puerto Rico, New York, Cuba and the Caribbean, Latin America and Spain. This collection is expected to grow quite rapidly. It is currently stored at the Brooklyn Campus.
Inter-Library Network
The College is a member of the Metropolitan and Reference Research Library Network (METRO) providing an avenue for Boricua students and faculty to use the services of 386 libraries in the metropolitan area.
Computer Laboratories
The Computer Labs provide for the teaching of computer skills required of all Boricua students. The College has three computer labs with 25 computer workstations each and a small lab of five PC's with standard software in word processing, database, presentations and academic software in English and mathematics. Research software is also available to all students during non-class times. Three electronic classrooms, currently in development projected for completion in the Fall 2000. They will include 50 computers plus overhead projection, video and video disc reproduction and communication with Internet access.
Natural Science Laboratories
The Science Labs provide a learning resources for the introductory experiential studies lab courses. There is a Biology, Physics and Chemistry Lab at the Brooklyn Campus, and Biology/Chemistry Lab at the Manhattan Campus.
Buildings
The College operates three learning centers in New York City near major population concentrations of Puerto Ricans and other Latinos. Two centers are located in Brooklyn (9 Graham Avenue in Williamsburg, and 186 North 6th Street in Greenpoint). A third center is located on Manhattan's Upper West Side (3755 Broadway, in the historic Audubon Terrace complex). Each of these facilities contains administrative and faculty offices, colloquium rooms, classrooms, library, common meeting rooms, and laboratories for computer sciences, natural sciences, language, and mathematics.
The physical facilities of the institution are specially adapted to its unique educational mission. Boricua believes students should be able to learn at a place convenient to their homes and jobs, to minimize transportation costs and; that a College should be rooted in the community, to enhance the responsiveness of both institution and students to community needs.
