Resources & Services

On Campus Resources

Main Library and Periodicals Room - Second Floor

The main library houses over 70,000 items including fiction books, non-fiction books, reference books, atlases, DVDs, and special collections. The main floor of the library has communal study areas, lounge areas, individual study desks, and public use computers. The Periodicals Room houses over 200 print journals, newspapers, and magazines. The room also has two communal study desks and a public use computer. New students, faculty and staff are automatically registered for library accounts. Your student ID card is your library card. Community members should fill out the online registration form (https://opac.dwci.edu/) and then visit the library in person to finish the registration process. Visitors should check in at the front desk to receive a visitor pass before going to the library.

 

Electronic Resources

The library offers card holders access to various electronic resources.

	Search for library resources in Koha, the library’s online catalog or OPAC. All subscription resources are accessible through the OPAC. Library Search
	Search for background information. Use instead of or in conjunction with Wikipedia.
	Search for academic articles. DWC has access to 25 databases including Academic Search Complete and Philosophers Index with Full Text.
	Watch films online or on your smart device. Offers a broad selection of academic films, most of which are exclusive to Kanopy.
	Borrow eBooks and audiobooks anytime, anywhere. Download Overdrive’s new app called Libby to listen or read books on your smart device.
	Find items in a library near you. WorldCat is the world's largest library catalog. The catalog is free to use and includes an index of over 360 million bibliographic records which represent over 2 billion resources in libraries.
	Provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites.
	Search for academic articles and eBooks. JSTOR has 2,600 top scholarly journals in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences and more than 120,000 eBooks.

 

Local Library Resources

DWC has a reciprocal borrowing agreement with the following libraries at nearby schools: Loras College, Clarke University, Emmaus Bible College, Wartburg Seminary, Northeast Iowa Community College, and Wartburg Seminary.

What does reciprocal borrowing mean?
You can get a library card at the above libraries. Borrowing is typically limited to books. Each borrowing agreement is slightly different. Ask your DWC librarians if you need assistance getting a library card at a nearby school.

Local Library Links

Services

Live Chat Service

The Library offers a live chat service. It is available M-F during regular business hours. Users can also send messages during non-business hours. A librarian will follow up within 48 hours. Find the chat box on the library’s online catalog: https://opac.dwci.edu/
 

Email Reference

Library staff are able to recommend, evaluate, and use information resources to help you meet particular information needs, such as writing a paper or finding a book or journal article. Email library@dwci.edu to ask a reference question or set-up an in-person reference consultation.
 

Interlibrary Loan

Borrow books and articles from other libraries. Fill out an ILL Form and send it to Br. Tony Kreinus (akreinus@dwci.edu).

Some items may be difficult or impossible to obtain through ILL. These include reference books, very new or old books, rare books, computer software, archival or genealogical materials, and certain serial volumes. If ILL is not possible, WorldCat is a great resource for finding items that may be available in a library near you. Likewise, ArchiveGrid is a fantastic resource for finding archival materials that may be in an institution near you.
 

Library Learning Sessions:

Choose from a number of delivery and topic types or customize a session in consultation with the librarian. Fill out a Library Learning Session Request.