The Collection
Entomology | New Book Shelf | Rare Books

Founded in 1882, the Lee Library houses a print collection approaching 50,000 volumes. The strength of the collection is in the agricultural and biological sciences, with an emphasis on supporting the research and extension activities of the Experiment Station’s Plant Pathology, Entomology, Horticultural Science and Food Science & Technology departments. The bulk of the collection resides in Jordan Hall, with a satellite collection in the Entomology Department in Barton Laboratory.

Lee Library, in collaboration with other CU libraries, provides access to thousands of scholarly journals, many of them now accessible in electronic format. Also available electronically are thousands of other electronic resources, such as indexes to the journal literature, encyclopedias, dictionaries, directories and e-books.

Find e-Journals is a list of all the e-journals to which Cornell subscribes. The list can be browsed by title, searched by title, keyword or subject.

Find Databases is a selection of the more heavily used databases. It can be searched, or browsed by title or subject. For the complete list, use the Library Catalog.

Of particular significance is Lee Library's extensive viticulture and enology collection, which is the finest collection east of the Rocky Mountains. This collection is comprised of over 2600 titles and over 40 current subscriptions to wine and grape periodicals from around the world. Together with Mann, Hotel, Olin and the Annex Libraries on the Ithaca campus, Cornell's holdings in enology and viticulture exceed 7,000 titles. In addition, Cornell's Eastern Wine and Grape Archive, a collaborative effort between Lee Library and the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections on the Ithaca campus, contains the business and personal records, correspondence and other non-published materials from grape growers, wine makers, wineries, researchers and others associated with the wine and grape industry in the East, documenting this rich history.

Library Collection Consolidation:
Lee Library Re-engineering Continues

Library users will be seeing a lot of activity in Lee Library over the course of several months. The collections of the library are in 4 physical locations, and that number needs to be reduced. The Entomology collection will be moved from Barton Lab and integrated into the Jordan Hall collection. In addition, fire code requirements are reducing the total shelving available in the Jordan first floor stacks and basement storage area. 

To accomplish those goals, the collection size is being reduced by withdrawing bound volumes of those journals which we now have available online and withdrawing several low-use serials. Station researchers will have continued access to the electronic equivalents from one's computer, both on campus or at home. 

Approximately 18,000 volumes will be removed from the Lee Library collections. Most of the journals being withdrawn from Geneva are also held at an Ithaca campus library. If Geneva's print copy is the only one in the CU library system, it will be transferred to the Library Annex on the Ithaca campus. Material unique to Cornell will not be removed from the collection.

Some of the journal duplicates have been sold to dealers. Some of the journal issues will be used to fill gaps in Ithaca campus libraries. The remaining journals targeted for withdrawal will be sent to recycling. 

If anyone is interested in acquiring any of the journals destined for recycling, check the alphabetical list or the list sorted by call number and contact the Lee Library concerning their availability and your interest.

This consolidation will result in a more manageable collection and will make books and journals more easily found. Lee Library print and electronic collections will continue to grow in our core subject areas.