The Library of American Civilization (LAC) is a collection of materials on microfiche relating to all aspects of American life and literature from their beginnings to the outbreak of World War I. Included in the collection are pamphlets, periodicals, documents, biographies and autobiographies, fictional works, poetry, collections of various kinds, materials of foreign origin relating to America, and many rare books not generally available.
Finding Library of American Civilization Materials
The library's Quick Search can be used for author, title, subject and keyword searches. To expedite your search, limit to Library Catalog using the menu on the left hand side of the Quick Search results screen. The record for an item in the LAC contains the fiche number.
The printed volumes are author, title and subject catalogs along with a biblioguide index. The LAC fiche number appears at the top right corner of the entry in each catalog and in the index. The biblioguide index is divided into 29 chapters - each its own broad topic.
Retrieving Library of American Civilization Materials
Most of the works included in the LAC are now freely available on the Internet via collections such as HathiTrust and Google Books. Try a Google search for the book by its title to see if you can find a scanned version online.. Due to the limited ability of our microform readers to read ultrafiche, we recommend searching the title in question online before attempting to retrieve it from the LAC collection.
The LAC microfiche are located in one file cabinet in the microform area. The microfiche are filed numerically by LAC number. LAC materials are on a type of microform called ultrafiche. Please feel free to ask for assistance in setting up the microform readers. Operating instructions are posted next to the readers for the convenience of patrons.
If you are unable to make a satisfactory copy from the LAC, you can request a physical copy of the book via interlibrary Loan (service available for TAMUCC students, faculty and staff only).
You can print from microfilm to the library printers. Costs for printing are posted near the printers on the first floor of the library.
When fnished, please place the microfilm in the small return box on the table next to the microform readers