Collections
General
The General Collection comprises most of the shelves on the first and second floors of the main atrium reading room and includes multiple circulating copies of the books read in the programs of study at St. John’s, collected in the best original language editions and translations available. The General Collection is especially rich in works written in Ancient Greek, Latin, Classical Chinese, Sanskrit, and French; in great works of science, mathematics, philosophy, theology, history, politics, and literature; in musical scores and texts; and in art. These works form the core of this collection, which also includes secondary scholarly and language resources, as well as a broad selection of other books for the general reading interest of the St. John’s community.
Oversize
The Oversize Collection is comprised of all books from the General Collection too large to fit in their proper call number location on our regular shelves. Oversize books with a call number of A-M and O-P are located at the very end of the downstairs “P” section (Literature), near the Technical Services Librarian’s office. Oversize books with a call number of Q-Z are located at the very end of the upstairs “N” section (Art), near the elevator door.
Reserve
The library strives to keep one non-circulating copy of every program reading (seminars, tutorials, preceptorials, and laboratories) in its Reserve Collection, located at the Circulation Desk. These copies are available upon request, for two-hour in-library use only.
Reference
The Reference collection, located on the open shelves immediately in front of the Circulation Desk, consists of non-circulating encyclopedias, dictionaries, lexicons, concordances, atlases, and other reference materials, available for in-library use only.
Periodicals
The library subscribes to a variety of print newspapers, magazines, and journals that support both the academic and the extracurricular interests of students, staff, and tutors. An index to the library’s current periodical subscriptions and its collection of back issues is available at the Circulation Desk. Current and recent issues are available in the open Periodical Reading Area on the south side of the library’s first floor. Older back issues are kept in the Archives room and are available upon request at the Circulation Desk, subject to staff availability. In addition to print periodical subscriptions and holdings, the library also provides access to JSTOR and Gale Reference Databases, which include archival scholarly journals with full-text articles.
Music CDs
Music has a prominent place in the St. John’s curriculum, and the library maintains an extensive collection of music CDs in support of this. The Music CD collection, which is housed behind the Circulation Desk, is searchable through the library’s online catalog, with CDs available for checkout upon request at the Circulation Desk. The library also provides a dedicated Sophomore Music CD collection, with curriculum-related CDs available upon request at the Circulation Desk, for two-hour in-library use or classroom use. The library’s CD listening stations, located in the first floor Southwest Room, are open and available to all patrons on a first-come, first-served basis.
DVDs
Meem Library houses an eclectic collection of DVDs. The DVD collection is searchable through the online catalog, and all DVDs are available for checkout upon request at the Circulation Desk. The library also provides a DVD viewing station, located in the rear of the library in the Southwest Room.
Lectures
The library houses a collection of both audio recordings and transcripts of historical lectures delivered on the Santa Fe campus, as well as many historical lectures delivered on the Annapolis campus. These lectures are searchable on the online catalog and may be requested at the Circulation Desk. More recent lecture audio recordings are available on the college’s digital archives and the library's Spotify account.
Senior, Master’s, and Prize Essays
The library houses one archival copy of each senior essay and master’s essay completed on the Santa Fe campus, as well as yearly bound collections of all essays awarded a prize at the college’s commencement ceremonies. These essays are searchable in the library’s online catalog and can be requested at the Circulation Desk for in-library reading only.
Faculty Books
The library maintains a Faculty Book Collection, with the aim of including a copy of every book authored by faculty members of both the Santa Fe and the Annapolis campuses, going back to the founding of the New Program. This collection, which is non-circulating, is located upstairs in the Ault-Evers Room, and requests for access must be placed with one of the librarians. Additional copies of many of these titles are also available in the General Collection, and those copies are available for regular checkout.
Special Books
Since the emphasis at St. John’s is placed on reading and discussion rather than on research, the library does not actively collect rare books, except when they directly serve the college’s program of study. Rare and unusual books are, however, sometimes received through gift or donation. If a book is rare or in some other way special or unusual, it is placed in the non-circulating Special Book Collection, located upstairs behind glass in the Ault-Evers Room. Requests for access to the Special Book Collection must be placed with one of the librarians. All Special Books are restricted to in-library use only.
Southwest
The library houses a dedicated Southwest Collection, which gathers together for ease of browsing all of holdings bearing on the history, natural history, culture, literature, and art of New Mexico and the American Southwest. This collection is split between a circulating collection located in the Southwest Room, at the southwest corner of the library’s first floor, and a non-circulating Southwest Special Book collection, which includes signed, rare, and special books and is located upstairs behind glass in the Ault-Evers Room. Requests for access to the Southwest Special Book Collection must be placed with one of the librarians. All Southwest Special Books are restricted to in-library use only.
Bynner-Hunt
American poet and translator Witter Bynner (1881-1968) and his partner Robert Hunt (1906-1964) were long-time residents of Santa Fe and benefactors of the Santa Fe campus of St. John’s. Over the years Bynner’s house on nearby Buena Vista street (which later served as a campus dormitory) was a stopping place for many of the writers and artists of note who passed through town, including Ansel Adams, W. H. Auden, Willa Cather, Robert Frost, Martha Graham, Aldous Huxley, Christopher Isherwood, D. H. Lawrence, Edna St. Vincent Millay, James Merrill, Georgia O’Keeffe, Carl Sandburg, Igor Stravinsky, Carl Van Vechten, and Thornton Wilder, among others. The Bynner-Hunt collection is comprised of books authored by Bynner and Hunt, as well a selection of others from their personal libraries that showcase Santa Fe’s literary history and the broader 1900s literary world in which Bynner and Hunt moved.
Joyce
As the result of a generous donation, the library has a significant collection of volumes devoted to the work of James Joyce. These books are currently shelved upstairs in Room 202.
Children’s
The library maintains a small children’s section, located on the north wall near the main stacks, for the use of children and the young at heart.
Archives
Meem Library houses the Santa Fe campus Archives, which includes historical academic instructional materials, college publications, photographs, audiovisual media, blueprints, newspaper clippings, and other materials (correspondence, memoranda, meeting minutes, financial records, reports) generated by the academic and administrative offices of the Santa Fe campus, as well several Special Archival collections that include printed materials and papers associated with individual tutors and alumni of St. John’s College. Access to materials held in the Archives is subject to Meem Library’s Archives Policy and by appointment only. Please contact the Acquisitions and Archives Librarian for any questions: 505-984-6043.
Digital Archives
The St. John’s College Digital Archives provides online access to material from the archival and special collections at the Meem Library (Santa Fe, NM) and the Greenfield Library (Annapolis, MD). This searchable database includes material such as college catalogs, commencement programs, speeches, audio recordings, typescripts, photographs, films, college publications, yearbooks, and more.