The Furman Libraries have 436,707 print books in our collection (at last count). Even with all of those titles, sometimes a member of our University community needs a research resource that we don’t have. Under those circumstances we look first to our South Carolina academic library partners. Over 25 years ago Furman was instrumental in forming PASCAL – the Partnership Among South Carolina Academic Libraries. With 55 member institutions this group supports over 237,000 college and university students, including those at Furman, through a shared library catalog, electronic databases, and resource lending. Through PASCAL Delivers Furman students are able to request materials from any member library with a 2-3 day turn-around time. I am very proud that all of the PASCAL lending libraries, Furman is #3 in loaning print materials to other institutions. Only USC-Columbia and the College of Charleston loan more print materials than Furman does!

This month PASCAL the traveling bookworm is making the rounds to all of the partner libraries. The bookworm visited us this week and it made me reflect on, and appreciate, this consortium and our relationship with other academic libraries in the State. For more information on PASCAL Delivers, or to borrow materials, go to PASCAL Delivers – InterLibrary Loan / Scan & Deliver Services – LibGuides at Furman University.

Caroline Mills
Director of Libraries