Technical Reference Center

The Technical Reference Center

The Technical Reference Center, (TRC), exists as a separate independent reference library supported through the College of Architecture and is housed within the College. Additional resources beyond the holdings of the TRC are available through the Sterling C. Evans (main campus) Library.

The Technical Reference Center at Texas A&M University, serves the University as an architectural reference library by providing, maintaining, and making available, materials that support the research and educational programs of the College of Architecture. The TRC has existed in its present form for over 20 years experiencing growth along with the College of Architecture. The library developed and grew through the direction and initiative of the College of Architecture and is supported by the College. Although not a traditional branch of the University Libraries, the TRC serves the university community by providing additional resources to faculty and students.

Located on the second floor of the Langford Architecture Center, Building A, the TRC is convenient to the Department and Program offices, faculty offices and studio areas. The library occupies 3,500 square feet of space which includes the library reference area with seating for 65, a slide collection with work/study areas, and a video viewing area with study carrels.

Interior view

Campus map

Location

The TRC is located on the second floor of Langford Building A directly off the atrium's North side.

History

The architecture program at Texas A&M College began as Architectural Engineering in 1905. It was a slight variation from the Civil Engineering program. In 1912 a separate program for Architecture was established within the School of Engineering. In 1956 the Department of Architecture was changed to the Division of Architecture, and then in 1969 Architecture separated from Engineering, becoming a separate college within the Texas A&M System. The Technical Reference Center (or TRC, as it's more commonly called) began in 1976 to develop into the form in which it exists today. It has grown in parallel to the College which it supports.

Texas A&M University presently has ten colleges: Agriculture, Architecture, Business Administration, Education, Engineering, Geosciences, Liberal Arts, Medicine, Science, and Veterinary Medicine. The College of Architecture is the smallest college. Traditionally, branch libraries have not been supported at Texas A&M University, therefore, the Technical Reference Center is administered by the College itself and is not supported financially by the main university library. Most services presently remain specific to each library.

The TRC is located on the A&M campus, on the second floor of the Langford Architecture Complex. Its 3,500 square feet of space house various library collections as well as a large slide collection. Most of the furnishings in the seating areas of the library are made up of pieces designed by well-known architects. The chairs, lounges, patron tables and seating all exemplify the individual creativity of the designers.

Since the Technical Reference Center is a specialized architecture library, its collections cover the range of subject areas that support the college programs and initiatives. The college offers undergraduate and graduate professional programs to prepare individuals to enter the professions of architecture, landscape architecture, building construction and urban and regional planning. Faculty in the college are made up of architects, urban planners, landscape architects, engineers, constructors, lawyers, historians and artists. These educators, working in collaboration with educators in the fields of the humanities and natural and social sciences work towards providing students with an understanding of the physical, social, economic and political forces that shape our environment.

The subject scope of the collection directly supports college course work, research, programs and initiatives. The scope of the collection covers architecture, art, design, photography, environmental studies, health care design, preservation, restoration, landscape architecture, comprehensive city and regional planning, planning law, land use, construction science, engineering and technology, computer graphics and other related areas.

The TRC has holdings of approximately 14,000 books and 85 current periodical titles, as well as many volumes of bound periodicals, indexes, plans, maps, product catalogs, newsletters, bulletins, video and audio tapes, slides, college catalogs, dissertations and theses. A collection of 1500 rare architectural and design books are housed within a special collection in the library and are available for in-library use.

The library has approximately 100 art and architecture video tapes which may be borrowed or viewed within the TRC. The TRC has in-house capabilities for viewing VHS and Beta video tape formats. Through five patron search stations, the TRC provides computerized access to the TRC library catalog, LibCat (the Sterling Evans Library's on line catalog), the Wilson Databases, FirstSearch, Netscape, and several email servers. The library has an assortment of art, architecture and general reference CD-ROMs for patron use. Several interactive discs on buildings and architecture provide virtual walk-throughs of the built environment, lending themselves especially well to architectural study.

The College's Slide Library, located within the TRC, functions primarily as a teaching resource for faculty within the College. The collection consists of over 95,000 35mm (primarily art & architecture) slides. Although the collection is used primarily by College faculty, it is sometimes utilized by other disciplines within the University. Slide Collection staff and student assistants facilitate collection growth and maintenance. The collection is continually developed through collection evaluation, new slide purchases, photography, research, cataloging, and technical processing. Although faculty are the primary users of this collection, students are granted limited use.