The Library and Learning Resources system includes all those functions of the College that provide students and faculty with the material and technological resources necessary to complete their assigned tasks.

Like most libraries in the country, Boricua College’s library is facing a dramatic challenge imposed by the constant changes in technological resources. The College aspires to establish a system whereby all our students can gain access to information and knowledge in digital format in a manner that is free to all. This does not mean the replacement of its present libraries, but rather to create a common network allowing for the flow of knowledge among the faculty and students. This goal poses an interesting educational challenge for the faculty and the library staff to create a partnership in support of student learning. The College’s library staff, faculty and academic administrators are studying this situation in order to design a 21st Century library.

Library Resources

For the last two decades, the library has followed the standards of the New York State Education Department (NYSED) (1989), and the American Libraries Association (ALA) (2004), that required a liberal arts senior college to observe the following minimum holdings formula:

Boricua College policy also includes the following principles:

The description of library resources and/or plan for library development should include educational and research materials in an appropriate print and non-print mix in depth and breadth to support the curriculum;
The institution should demonstrate that students attain through instruction and practice the advanced information literacy skills appropriate to the attainment of the general education and program goals;
Library resources should include a sufficient number of appropriately trained library staff to support the proposed program;
Sufficient number of Library staff should possess a Master’s degree from accredited library schools

Current Status: Thus, Boricua College, while updating its Master Plan 2012-2017, created several objectives aimed to upgrade and update the library and has worked to meet the standards while continuing to support both traditional and non-traditional aspects of Boricua’s programs. Its current priorities are to continue to meet the standards and supplement print materials with digital data, retraining faculty and staff in the use of contemporary digital books, magazines and scholarly journals; and redesign the library facilities of 14,692 sq. ft.,(12 sq. ft. per student).

The Boricua College library currently has several major units distributed among the three campuses: Basic Liberal Arts Collection, Academic Programs Collections. Instructional Modules Library, Special Collections, in addition to an Inner-City library agreement, and several other networks of digital and print resources and electronic catalogue system.

Basic Liberal Arts and Academic Programs Collections:

The Basic Collection includes the general liberal arts and science collection as well as special holdings for each academic program according to standards established by the State Education Department, the National Library Association, and the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools.

Instructional Module Library:

The Instructional Module Library is a circulating library that has 42,650 volumes, including 25 multiple stock items per volume, and a Module Reserve Book Collection of 1,442 volumes that support bibliographic citations of copyrighted text used in the production of instructional modules.

Special Collections

Congressman Herman Badillo’s Congressional Papers represent the work of the first Puerto Rican congressman and include documentation of his activities supporting the development of New York’s Puerto Rican community. The papers also document Congressman Badillo’s participation in the impeachment hearings of President Richard Nixon and his leadership in creating the Bi-lingual Education Act.
The Puerto Rican Collection is composed of books, periodicals, letters, photographs, clippings, and other published materials related to the Puerto Rican community’s experience in New York City from 1930 to 1980. The collection contains 3,446 volumes.
The Hispanic Music Collection serves as a repository of the music of Puerto Rican and other Hispanic communities over the last 100 years. The primary objective of the collection is to document and maintain this music. The growing collection now contains 5,447 records and tapes from classical, popular, and folklore genres. The Hispanic community’s interest in this collection is expanding rapidly.
The Map Collection was donated to the College by the American Geographical Society and represents the society’s illustrious work. For many years, the society was a leading international institution of scholarship, exploration, and mapmaking. The Manhattan campus center is located in the former building of the American Geographical Society, which the College purchased in 1980. The collection contains 9,000 maps related to historical, geographic, demographic, and other physiographic developments worldwide studied by the Society.
Inner-City Library Agreement: Boricua is a member of the New York Metropolitan Reference and Research Libraries Consortium (METRO), which provides faculty and students with access to the collections and services of 270 member institutions that represent 1,200 libraries in the New York metropolitan area. Students also use the New York Public Library system.
Koha Electronic Card Catalogue: The college is migrating its legacy card catalog to a modern digital version based on Koha, the leading open source integrated library system. The new system provides online access to the college community from any computer connected to the internet. It provides powerful online search capabilities, description of titles, resource availability, library location of titles, hold and reserve, commenting on titles, acquisition recommendations and linkages to other local libraries that might hold copies of searched titles. The user will be able to browse an electronic version of the physical shelf where the book is located. All users will be able to create reading lists for their own personal use or to make them publicly available to other users. This is a great tool for faculty to share their reading bibliography and or interests with their students. The same interface will be used for accessing EBSCO electronic journals databases, the World catalog and other online resources.
(WALDO) Westchester Academic Library Directors Organization
WALDO is a membership organization supporting the procurement and administration of electronic information services for libraries since 1982. Boricua College joined WALDO in 2003 when they expanded their membership to locations outside of Westchester County in NY. WALDO membership provides the college with the following services:
METRO (Metropolitan New York Library Council): METRO has developed and maintains unsurpassed services to facilitate resource sharing among member libraries. Their resource sharing services open the world of knowledge to patrons of member libraries by providing access to collections around New York City and Westchester County. With more than 250 members, the METRO community encompasses a variety of archives and libraries, including academic, hospital, nonprofit, school, special, and public libraries. METRO’s Referral Card system expands our college community access to collections and resources throughout New York City and Westchester County.
EBSCO Information Services: EBSCO offers E-books more than 75 full-text and secondary research database subscriptions for over 360,000 e-journals, and print journals.

Library Use and Training

The library staff conducts library training for students and faculty on a regular basis. Students are given a survey questionnaire by the librarian to express their opinions about the visit. These questionnaires are then analyzed by the library staff and academic administrators to decide what improvements should be made.

Information Technology System

For almost a decade the College has used as its information technology infrastructure a system known as CAMS (Comprehensive Academic Management System). The system has made a positive contribution in the management of information, in particular with respect to the registration of students and academic reporting. The operational linkages between departments of finance, student accounts, Bursar and financial aid is in progress. Moreover, the servers and communication bandwidth have been upgraded.

Computer Laboratories

The Computer Labs provide for the teaching of computer skills required of all Boricua students. The College has five (5) computer labs with twenty-five (25) computer workstations each with standard software for word processing and academic software in English and mathematics. Research software is also available to all students and faculty. Every classroom in the College has the potential of becoming an electronic classroom when connected to a portable multimedia audio-visual computer system.

Natural Science Laboratories

There are five general science labs, two at the Brooklyn Campus Center, one at the Manhattan Campus and two at the Bronx Campus Center. All students are required to take at least one natural science lab course.

Physical Education Gymnasium

Physical development and maintenance of health is an important component of Boricua's academic philosophy. Courses in yoga, dance, martial arts, volleyball, basketball, and lectures on personal health and other physical activities regularly take place in the College's physical development studios at each Campus center.

Buildings and Grounds

Boricua facilities are specially designated to support its adapted to its unique educational mission and instructional methods, and their locations are chosen to allow students to learn at a place convenient to their homes and jobs, in order to minimize transportation and other costs. The College is also an active partner with the communities it serves and a strong collaborator in the economic and cultural development of the communities.