A-B Tech has an incredible resource on its campus through the Don C. Locke Library. It has changed locations and names over the past 55 years since it was established in 1964, but the mission of providing invaluable services to students, employees, and the community has stayed the same.
We want you to get to know the Library and are offering everyone who signs up and takes a tour this semester an entry into a drawing for an A-B Tech-themed gift basket. Instructors are encouraged to bring their classes and explore Locke Library, as well. If you haven’t been in a while, you’ll want to come and see the brand-new, inviting furniture. They have egg chairs, self-contained study chairs, and comfortable chairs with tables designed to hold equipment with cables. Sign up for a tour at another great resource, the Ask-a-Librarian form. Tours are available at 10 a.m. on Mondays and 3 p.m. on Thursdays. Be sure to specify which day and time.
From its modest beginnings in a single 682-square-foot room in the present-day Bailey Building to a two-level structure with more than 60,000 square feet, Locke Library offers a multitude of services for students and employees. When the current building was first opened in 1977, an article in the Asheville Citizen said the AV collection boasted “video cassettes, filmstrips, tapes, slides, kits, and other visuals to support the instructional programs.” The technology has evolved since then, including the card catalog being retired in the late 1980s.
Russell Taylor is the Library Director who was hired in 2015. We will be learning more about Russell and the entire staff throughout the semester, along with fun facts and things you may have not known about what is available at Locke Library.
Locke Library Services
For this first installment, we will be highlighting the services available at the Locke Library. You will need a library card to check out materials and access reserve items. A-B Tech issues college ID cards to students, faculty, and staff that also serve as your library card. With your library-activated photo ID card, you can check out materials and access reserve items.
Locke also offers borrowing privileges for Continuing Education students and Buncombe and Madison County residents. They can get library cards by filling out an application at the Don C. Locke Library circulation desk. Borrowing privileges for those two groups are different from curriculum student privileges.
- Interlibrary Loan (ILL) allows borrowers to request materials from participating libraries. Book loans are generally free.
- Laptop Checkout Laptops are also available to currently enrolled curriculum students for home use. The loan period is per semester and an A-B Tech Photo ID is required. Students must have records in good standing in order to check out a laptop.
- Word processing, printing, email, and using Moodle in the open computer lab located on the lower level of the building.
- Research Central computers on the library's upper level are used primarily for individual and class research.
- Renewing items Books can be renewed at the circulation desk or online through the library catalog.
- Quiet places to study We have four group study rooms with whiteboards. The rooms each seat 6-8 people.
- Off-campus access to NC LIVE & other databases All current students and faculty or staff members have their own personal logins which give access to all available NC Live resources and other subscription databases.
- Wireless access is available throughout the library. No access code is required to use the wireless network on your own laptop computer.
- Class Reserves/Textbooks
- Food and Drink guidelines You may bring library-friendly drinks and snacks to Don C. Locke Library.
- Suggestion for Purchase Don C. Locke Library welcomes suggestions for purchase for our collection from college faculty, staff, and students.
- A-B Tech Digital Archives DigitalNC, a joint project of the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, the UNC-Chapel Hill University Library, and the North Carolina Digital Heritage Center has digitized some of A-B Tech's archival yearbooks.
