It consists of a variety of materials across a broad range of social and natural sciences and humanities disciplines. Faculty use reserve for introductory courses, requiring students to read books as well as many articles and book chapters set aside for their use. Student use of environmental materials in the sciences tends to follow a normal pattern of library use for science material, including emphasis on use of journal literature. There is of course pervasive use of resources across the relevant disciplines. In general existing collection strengths in this field however are not great enough to support extensive faculty research in environmental studies per se.
Faculty use the collection more to prepare for and support teaching efforts.
Faculty research tends to require use of library resources outside Oberlin. Some OECD publications are in European languages. There is interest in international environmental law and policy formation, but most material on these subjects collected is in English. Emphasis is on current materials, but classic works of environmental authors such as John James Audubon, Henry David Thoreau and more recently Rachel Carson and John Muir are acquired in modern editions. Acquiring works published in U.S. and U.K. is emphasized.