Div III's are Hampshire College students' capstone projects, and are available in different formats and media, across all five interdisciplinary schools. Submission of Div III projects is not a requirement, so the library does not have every graduate's Div III project.
Div III's may be submitted as hard copies which are then bound, or they may submitted as digital files. The Div III Archive online contains works from 2006 to the present. The most recent 15 years of bound Div III's are shelved in the Div III showcase on the first floor. Older Div III's are shelved on the 2nd floor, before the A call number range. Both bound and digital Div III's have records that display in the library catalog. One can view full text of digital Div III's by using the link in the online catalog, but they must be a Hampshire user. Guests may borrow a printing card and use the username and password on the card in order to view a digital copy. Bound Div III's must be used in the library only.
The game library at Hampshire College is a collection of analog and digital games. Anyone is welcome to play a game in the library. Five College students, faculty, and staff may check out games. Analog games (board games, card games, RPG, etc.) must be checked out and returned to the Hampshire College library. Video games may be requested by Five College members through the catalog. This unique collection, selected by Ira Fay, Hampshire’s previous assistant professor of computer science and game design, is maintained by the library staff.
Games are checked out just like books. You can check out up to two (video) or four (analog) games at a time. Analog games are checked out for two weeks. Video games are checked out for one month.
The empty cases for video games are on display at the beginning of the board game ranges. If a patron wants to borrow a video game, they bring the empty case to you and you pull the game from one of the boxes in the cabinet behind the InfoBar, and then check it out to the patron.
Search for Games in the library catalog here.
This collection is composed of music-related materials, including guitar and banjo music and African music sources that came to us from the collection of long-time area resident and musician, Jonathan Bekoff after he passed away in 2015. Jonathan had strong passions for studying, collecting, playing, mentoring, and sharing music of the world, particularly American Old-time and music of Africa and the African diaspora.
Search for items in this collection in the library catalog by doing an advanced search and adding the term Bekoff to the Note search.
The Kael collection is the working library of Pauline Kael, a longtime film critic for the New Yorker magazine. The books range from biographies of Hollywood stars to seminal works of film theory. Hampshire acquired the library from Kael's daughter who lived nearby.
Books in the Kael collection are shelved on the second floor, in the stacks between the Bradford Room and the 2nd floor training room. Kael returns are placed on the A-HN reshelving cart before all other books.
The Robert Seydel Collection is the private library of the eponymous Hampshire Associate Professor of Visual Art. The collection includes more than 3500 volumes of poetry and literature, books on prehistoric art and rock art, history of science, alchemy and the occult, art books, photography books, artist books and Siglio Press titles, the independent press that published Robert's work.
The Seydel collection is shelved on the second floor of the library.
Books shelved in the locked cases are deemed Seydel Special Collections. Patrons wishing to use Seydel Special Collections must make an appointment with Rachel Beckwith, Access and Arts Librarian, rbLO@hampshire.edu. Seydel Special Collections books must be used in the library, in the library main office.
The Women’s Lives Collection is a collection of 2,000 women’s autobiographies. Donated by Andrea Wright, retired Director of Career Services at Hampshire, it explore the questions of what it means to “follow dreams” , lead a “meaningful life”, and what constitutes a role model.
Books in the Wright Collection are shelved on the second floor, next to the SPARC office. Wright returns are placed on the Q-Z reshelving cart before all other books.
The Seed Lending Library at Hampshire College is the result of a collaborative effort between Hannah Haskell (F’08) and the Harold F. Johnson Library. It was created to give the Hampshire community access to organic and non-genetically engineered seeds, free of charge. The library also serves as a resource for hopeful growers who wish to learn more about sustainable farming and gardening practices, specifically the practice of seed saving.
See more about the Seed Library here.
The non-circulating zine library, shelved outside of the library's main office, contains over 1,000 zines, with the bulk of the collection from the 1990's-2010's. There are a significant number of British punk zines, a growing number of queer/trans zines, and many by people of color, with a wide range of subjects, including Feminism, Politics, Art, Anarchy, Poetry, and Comics.
This collection was started in the 1990's by students who were creating their own zines and adding zines from friends and fellow zinesters from around the U.S. In 2007, the Zine Collective, a now-defunct student group, began to reorganize the collection. Zines do not circulate and they must be used in the library.