Skip to Main Content Library | USC Upstate

About the Library

Welcome to the USC Upstate Library!

If you're a returning student, staff member, or faculty member, we are happy that you're back. If you're new to the USC Upstate community, we're excited that you chose to call USC Upstate home. 

John Barnett, Dean of the USC Upstate Library

 

 

Each semester brings new opportunities for growth, change, and collaboration. During your time at USC Upstate, we hope you will take advantage of all the resources, services, and programs the library offers.

Here's how we can help you with research, teaching, and learning: 

  • Our Research Librarians are ready to answer questions and dive deep to help you find the information and research that you need. This service is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, in person and via Ask a Librarian.
  • Our Instruction Librarians are eager to support your classes through librarian-led research sessions.
  • We have created hundreds of Library guides (aka LibGuides) to help start your research, offering guidance on using resources for specific disciplines and courses, writing tips, citation help, technology help, and more.
  • We're building and assessing our print and digital collections so that they remain relevant to the University curriculum. Currently, we have access to more than 330 databases, 200,000+ journals, more than 1 million e-books, and more than 155,000 print volumes.
  • When we don't have something available in print or digitally, our Access Services staff can often get it for you through our PASCAL Delivers and interlibrary loan services.
  • Access Services staff can also help with course materials placed on reserve, checking out library materials and equipment, and troubleshooting library-related technology.
  • Our Collections, E-Resources, and Technical Services team can order books, streaming media, and other materials to support teaching, learning, and research. In academic year 2024-2025, in response to student, staff, and faculty needs, we added a number of new resources, including The Wall Street Journal digital edition, the KBASE (Kanopy) streaming film collection, The National Review Archive, the Women's Studies Archive, and the History of Disabilities: Disabilities in Society, Seventeenth to Twentieth Century digital collection.
  • Our Archives and Special Collections team can help with resources that document the history and development of the University, as well as the 10-county region comprising Upstate South Carolina.
  • We also work with faculty, the bookstore, and other education partners to make student learning more affordable. We have a small but growing print textbook collection, provide free access to library e-resources, and promote and support the use and creation of Open Education Resources (OER).
Culture and Community

We want you to consider the USC Upstate Library a "third place" on campus--a place for enjoyment, well-being, and belonging as well as for education, information, and study.

In 2024-2025, we continued our series of faculty research talks with a presentation by Dr. Walter Lee, Associate Professor of Middle-Level Education in the College of Education, Human Performance, and Health. Dr. Lee's presentation was entitled, "Little Thing, Big Difference: Getting to the Core of Life-Changing Classrooms." 

We hope to have more faculty research talks planned for academic year 2025-2026.

We also mounted several poster exhibits and book displays to commemorate Veterans Day, Day of the Dead/Día de los Muertos, African American History Month, faculty publications, Women's History Month, award-winning children's literature, and many more.

In collaboration with Walt's Waltz, we offered a number of painting workshops in support of student mental health. In addition to these workshops, we also expanded the Wellness Collection of books, kits, and other materials to support student well-being.

In 2025-2026, we have plans for more book talks, exhibits, films, workshops, and book displays. Check out our News page for up-to-date information on these activities.  

Connect and Collaborate

To see all the library can offer, please visit our website to "Start Your Search."

If you don't see what you want, please call, email, chat, visit, or Book a Librarian—We'll be happy to help you locate what you need.

Our librarians and library assistants are always learning more about student, staff, and faculty research and information needs and improving our services, spaces, and collections to meet those needs. We want you to consider us vital partners in student retention, persistence, and success.

We are committed to providing USC Upstate students, staff, and faculty with superlative services and collections from an energized, engaged library team.

John Barnett Joins Upstate as New Library Dean

Up Magazine / John Barnett Joins Upstate as New Library Dean
https://up.uscupstate.edu/john-barnett-joins-upstate-new-library-dean/ 

As the new dean of the USC Upstate Library, John Barnett has large shoes to fill. He succeeds Frieda Davison, who retires after 21 years as Library dean. Barnett will oversee the completion of a major renovation of the Library building and the implementation of a statewide library shared service platform, among other responsibilities.

“I’m really excited to join USC Upstate as the new Library dean,” Barnett said. “I look forward to working with the University community and Library faculty and staff to have a direct, positive impact on services that support teaching, learning and research.”

Barnett, originally of Swansboro, N.C., has more than 25 years of experience in library management, leadership, collections, outreach to diverse audiences, grant writing, scholarly communication, and reference and instructional services. Most recently, he served as executive director of the Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL), an academic library consortium headquartered in Toronto, Canada.

Prior to joining OCUL in 2015, Barnett served as the scholarly communications librarian for the University of Pittsburgh Library System, where he worked with students and faculty on issues that included open access to research literature, author rights, copyright and altmetrics. He was co-editor of Pennsylvania Libraries: Research and Practice, an open access journal.

“The dean of the Library plays a vital role in USC Upstate’s commitment to academic excellence, collaborative teaching and learning, and community engagement,” said USC Upstate Provost David Schecter. “I am very excited that John has agreed to come and work with us and believe he will do a terrific job.”

Barnett has also served as assistant director of the Pennsylvania Academic Library Consortium; director of collection development at Gettysburg College’s Musselman Library; head of collection development at the University of Texas San Antonio (UTSA) Library; head of the UTSA’s Downtown Campus Library; and reference librarian at the San Antonio Public Library. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English, writing and editing from East Carolina University. In 1995, he graduated from the Master of Library and Information Studies program at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Constructed in 1976, USC Upstate’s 60,000-square-foot Library houses more than 220,000 volumes and an ever-expanding archive that includes special collections and artifacts related to the history of the 10-county region of Upstate, South Carolina.