Do the Purdue Libraries have any literature -- fiction, novels, short stories, plays, poetry?
Answer
Yes, we have thousands of literary works in several locations. The Contemporary Literature collection in the Hicks Undergraduate Library features novels by living authors. There is a much larger collection of literary works (ancient through modern and in several languages) in the HSSE Library, Library of Congress call numbers PA-PZ (2nd floor) and Dewey call numbers 800-899 (3rd floor).* We have such works in electronic formats, too, especially older works in the public domain. There is also a Children's Literature collection in the HSSE Library, Periodical Stacks, Level 1. For information on Children's Lit click here.
If you know the name of an author or the title of a book, you can do an author search or a title search in catalog. (We recommend limiting the scope of your search to Books & Media). If you don’t have a particular work or author in mind, you can find works OF literature (mixed with works ABOUT literature) by doing an Advanced Search in Books & Media for subject terms such as: Literature, Novels, Stories, Drama, Plays, Poetry. Search results can be narrowed down by using categories or filters on the left of the screen, such as: Material Type (Books), West Lafayette Campus Libraries (Hicks Undergraduate), Held by Library (= print books), or Available Online (= e-books).
Readers who prefer to browse the shelves, should go to the Hicks Undergraduate Library or the HSSE Library. Or they can also browse virtually in the online catalog. The catalog record for any book has a Virtual Browse function that shows what other books appear next to it on a “virtual shelf,” including e-books.
Readers can also find fiction at the West Lafayette Public Library and the Tippecanoe County Public Library .
*Library of Congress Classification, P-PZ,
Dewey Decimal Classification, 800-899,