The John and Louise Hulst Library has a collection of approximately 308,000 volumes. This includes 126,500 book volumes, 18,500 print journal volumes, and 163,000 microtext units. The library subscribes to nearly 500 journals, magazines, and newspapers and has electronic access to another 15,000 titles.

The Reference Collection is located on the upper level of the library and includes items such as general encyclopedias and subject encyclopedias, dictionaries, directories, bibliographies, statistical sources, and atlases. Located across from the Reference Desk is a small collection of Ready Reference materials. Included in this collection are the latest handbooks, directories, and other frequently-requested or highly-used titles (e.g. a Bible, a dictionary). Reference materials may only be checked out under special circumstances (see a reference librarian).

The Learning Resource Center (LRC -- room 267) on the library's upper level contains more than 10,000 elementary and secondary textbooks, videos, kits, pamphlets, unit ideas, and other teaching tools for education students. For more information, visit the LRC's web site.

The Young Adult and Children's Literature Collection within the LRC houses more than 7,600 juvenile and adolescent books, including accompanying reference materials.

A collection of more than 2,200 DVDs and videotapes is available for viewing in the library or for check out. Non-fiction DVDs and videos are shelved in the general collection with the books according to their Library of Congress classification number. All feature length films are located in a special section near the Reference Collection.

The library provides access to many online resources and services. Please see the Services section for further information.

A collection of over 4,000 sound recordings (compact discs, cassette tapes, and LP records) reside in the library's Music Listening Room which is located on the lower level of the library. Use our iLink catalog to locate items within this collection. In iLink, click on the "Power Search" link. Enter your search terms on the upper half of the screen (composers' names, song titles, etc.) and on the lower half, click on the drop-down menu next to "location:" and select "Music Listening Room - Room 161".

Lectures and speeches given at Dordt College since the 1970s are available from the Check Out Desk.

The library subscribes to the following newspapers:

• Argus Leader (Sioux Falls)
• Des Moines Register
• Doon Press
• Globe & Mail (Canadian)
• New York Times
• NRC Hanelsblad (Dutch)
• N'West Iowa Review
• Sioux Center News
• Sioux City Journal
• Wall Street Journal
• Windmill Herald (Dutch)

The current issues are kept on reading sticks near the current journal section of the library. Back issues are kept (for up to one year) in the same area. Several hundred newspapers are available full-text through our Lexis-Nexis service and our Ebscohost newspaper database.

Historic materials related to Dordt College, the Christian Reformed Church, its local classis, and Dordt's Dutch heritage are located in the Archives and Dutch Memorial room on the lower level (room 154). For more information, call x6049 or email archives@dordt.edu.

The John and Louise Hulst Library welcomes gifts of books, journals, and videotapes. The library reserves the right, however, to decide whether or not any gift is to be added to the collection, made available to other libraries through exchange, sold, or discarded. The appraisal of gifts for tax purposes is the responsibility of the donor.