Services for the Public
- Facility and displays
- Borrow/return materials
- Internet use
- Word processing
- Printing
- Photocopying
- Reference assistance
- Events
Facility and displays
Named after William A. Egan, Chair of Alaska’s Constitutional Convention and the state’s first governor (1959-1966), the university’s 50,000-square-foot library opened in 1990. The architectural firms BOOR/A and Jensen Douglas jointly designed the facility and won a 1991 Honor Award for Excellence in Architecture from the American Institute of Architects for it. Skylights and expansive two-story windows provide natural daylight as well as views of Auke Lake and the surrounding rainforest. The facility is not only worth visiting for its unique and attractive architecture but also for the collection of Northwest Coast Native Art (PDF) it houses, including wood carvings, basketry, and Ravenstail weaving. A grizzly bear skeleton, cleaned and prepared by a former student, is also on display.
Members of the public are welcome to visit and use this attractive facility. It is located 1.6 miles from the Alaska Marine Highways terminal, 4 miles from the Juneau airport, and 12 miles from downtown Juneau. A Capital City Transit express bus stops outside the library hourly during business hours on weekdays and another bus stops during all Transit service hours near DeHarts, within ¼ mile of the library, on its regular Valley route.
Children in the library must be accompanied and supervised (within line of site) by an adult when visiting the library. Egan Library adheres to the UAS Children on Campus policy. We have a collection of kids’ fiction and non-fiction books available for borrowing. ^
Borrow and return materials
City and Borough of Juneau residents
CBJ residents who don’t already have a blue Capital City Libraries card are welcome to register for one, which will enable them to check out materials from Egan Library, subject to our borrowing policy. A courier picks up and delivers materials to all Capital City Libraries on weekdays, so you may return Egan Library materials to other Capital City Libraries or return other libraries’ materials to Egan Library. Either way, materials will be checked in and automatically routed to the library of origin.
Holds for circulating library materials can be placed directly from the online library catalog or by calling the Egan Library Circulation Desk (796-6300). You may choose to have materials delivered to another Capital Cities Library at no cost to you by using our courier service, if that is more convenient. Just select the library for pick-up when you place your hold.
Periodicals may only be used in the library and are not available for checkout. Magazines, scholarly journals, and newspapers from some Alaska communities are available for browsing. Major daily national newspapers are available online.
UAA and UAF Students, Staff, Faculty
Students, staff, and faculty from the University of Alaska Anchorage and University of Alaska Fairbanks also have borrowing privileges at Egan Library. Please consult our UAA-UAF borrowing policy for details.
Alaska residents
Egan Library belongs to the Alaska Reciprocal Borrowing Program and will loan materials to cardholders from other Alaska libraries that belong to the Program. Please consult our policy regarding reciprocal borrowing.
Electronic books
Electronic books in the library catalog from NetLibrary and ebrary that are not available from off-campus without UAS network login and password can be accessed from the library’s workstations. The terms of our licenses allow walk-in users to read these books on library workstations and print a few pages. ^
Internet use – public workstations and wireless network
Public workstations
The library has twelve public workstations where users may access the library’s catalog, licensed databases, electronic books, and the Internet.
* Students and researchers have priority use of public workstations.*
The primary purpose for maintaining these computers is research and other uses are discouraged. Please see our Computer Use Policy for further information about computing policy at Egan Library.
The Internet-access public workstations do not have word processing software for creating documents (only a Microsoft Word viewer) see Word Processing for more information
Under license agreements for electronic resources, off-campus access to some of the library’s holdings (e.g. ebrary and some netLibrary electronic books; Cambridge Scientific Abstracts, FirstSearch, and ProQuest databases) is only available to those who have a current affiliation with UAS (e.g. employee or registered student). However, access to these databases is available to anyone from the library’s public access computers.
Wireless network
A wireless network makes it possible for laptop users with a wireless network card to gain Internet access from any point in the library. Please come and make yourself comfortable in the library - be creative, do research, and study in our beautiful facility. ^
Word processing
The library has a single stand-alone workstation where Microsoft Office programs (Word, Excel, Power Point) are available to create and print one copy of documents. Please bring a disk (or purchase one for $1 at our Circulation Desk) or flash drive in order to save your document file if you need to take a copy of the file with you. There is no Internet connection for this workstation, so you will not be able to e-mail the document unless you first save the file to an external device. Files cannot be stored on this computer as its drives are automatically erased at pre-set intervals. ^
Printing
At the present time, printing from public workstations and laptops is free for students and members of the public. However, printers and print cartridges are paid for out of student fees, while paper supplies and technical maintenance are funded from the library’s budget. The privilege of having free printing can be maintained only if users cooperate by limiting their printing to single copies of research-related materials or documents. The library cannot afford to be a printing service for multiple copies of documents – a public photocopier is available for making more than one copy of any document, article, or website at a cost of 10¢ per page.
Please help us conserve paper and print cartridges! Observe our Printing Guidelines posted at the public workstations and various places around the library. To control costs and make adequate resources available to students, library staff reserves the right to limit the size and number of printing jobs requested by members of the public who have no current affiliation with the university.
We welcome donations from members of the public to cover the cost of printing especially large documents (~20 pages or more). ^
Photocopying
A photocopier is available to make copies at 10¢ per page, and the copier accepts both coins and bills. Copy cards may be purchased at the Circulation Desk for $5, $10, or $20. The machine is only equipped to handle one type of transparency, which may be purchased for 75¢ a sheet at the Circulation Desk. ^
Reference assistance
Trained staff offers assistance in finding information in our library collections or on the Web during all service hours. Please stop by the reference desk or call us at (907) 796-6502 or toll-free at 1- 877-796-6502 or e-mail Ask a Reference Librarian. ^
Events
Most campus events are listed in the campus calendar.
Occasionally, the library’s ground-floor area is used for public events since it has seating in place for 150 and room for 100+ more chairs. Only events sponsored by a university entity take place there, and a university staff or faculty member takes responsibility for the facility and makes arrangements for its use during the event by contacting Beatrice Franklin (phone 796-6470 / fax 796-6249 / or email beatrice.franklin "at" uas.alaska.edu). To register for public events at the Egan Library please see the Reservation form (PDF) and the Facility Use Agreement (PDF).
We take care to schedule events at times outside library service hours whenever possible. Occasionally, we make exceptions for speakers who can only visit campus on a particular day and need a venue that seats more people than other available spaces on campus. In those instances, we post signs and direct library users to classrooms, group study rooms, and far corners of the library where disturbance from the public gathering is minimal. ^