• Pacific Northwest Connections
• General Collection
• Lending
• Old and Rare Books
• General Collection
• Periodicals
• Children's Books
• Visual Media
• Electronic Resources
• Catalogs
• Vertical Files
• Special Collections

Usage:

The Miller Library is open to the general public without charge and all collections are available for use within the library (See Library Hours/Contact Information).

Pacific Northwest Connections:

The heart of the Miller Library’s book collections is the Pacific Northwest Connections. Here you find books by Pacific Northwest authors specific to gardening, horticulture, native plants, ecosystems and habitats of our region.
Also featured are books of the plants and gardens from other geographic areas with comparable climates and growing conditions, including New Zealand, Australia, China, Japan, South Africa, Chile, and the Mediterranean. Many of these regions will be included in the new eco-geographic exhibits to be developed at the Washington Park Arboretum in the coming years. A selection of core, general reference books are also included in this collection.
The Pacific Northwest Connections books, some 1,500 total, are identified by a green stripe on the binding of each book and are found on the low shelves near the reference desk.

General Collection:

Over 13,000 books on gardening techniques, selecting and growing ornamental plants, vegetable and herb gardening, pests and diseases, garden design and history, gardens to visit, horticulture in an urban environment, botany and plant ecology, and native floras from around the world makes ours the most extensive horticulture collection of any Pacific Northwest library open to the public.
These books are found in the tall, central shelves and along the west wall of the reading room.

Does it Lend?

Books in the Miller Library are organized by subject – so if you’re interested in roses, you’ll find all the books on roses in one place. Reference books and lending books are shelved side-by-side. How do you tell them apart? If it has a red stripe, you can check it out. If not, the book is for library use only.
In many cases we have two copies of the same title: one will have a red stripe and can be checked-out, the other will not have the stripe and will always be available in the library.
As at a public library, registration for borrowing is required.

Old and Rare Books:

Herbals from the 1600s, florilegiums from the 1700s, popular gardening works form the 1800’s, older journals, and rare research materials are stored in a special collections, climate controlled room.  Occasional included in library programs and displays, appointments can be made with the Curator of Horticultural Literature (link?) to view these items.

Periodicals:

280 active subscriptions cover a range from magazines for home gardeners to journals for researchers. Over 500 titles include early twentieth century publications and current newsletters from regional garden clubs and arboreta. Lists by Title, Organization or Subject gives specific information on holdings. Some of these subscriptions are unique to the Miller Library.

Children's Books:

The Miller Library currently has a Children’s Collection of 400 books designated for Pre-School (up to age 5), Primary (ages 6 – 12) or Secondary (ages 13 – 18).  Subjects include the basics of gardening, culture for common vegetables and flowers, animals found in the garden, the ecology of gardens in urban settings, basic botany, plant related science projects, and studies of plants in their natural setting.  Titles include both fiction and non-fiction but all have been selected for their educational value, and all can be checked out. An annotated list (pdf) has been created to help with selection.

Visual Media:

VHS video tapes and DVDs of famous gardens and flower shows, horticultural techniques and many other subjects are available to check-out, or to watch with a headset on the Miller Library’s video/DVD player.

Electronic Resources:

CD-ROMs and Internet databases are available for use on the library's 4 public computers. These include plant selection and landscape design programs, gardening encyclopedias, photo collections, plant source finders and indexes to horticultural periodicals.  Many of the CD-ROMs are available to check-out.

Catalogs:

Nearly 1,000 current wholesale and retail nursery catalogs are filed by name and indexed by subject. About one-third of the catalogs are from companies in the Pacific Northwest. PDF list of catalogs (59 pages).

Vertical Files:

The library has about 30 linear feet of clipping files with an emphasis on local information including pamphlets, copies of magazine articles on popular topics, and newspaper clippings. Material not easily available in book format can be found here. In addition, there are brochures from gardens to visit in the Pacific Northwest and around the world.

Special Collections:

Several small, specialized collections of materials are housed in the library. These include Washington State University Extension bulletins on horticultural topics, membership directories for many horticultural organizations, theses of Center for Urban Horticulture graduate students, plus maps, plans and other documents from throughout the University of Washington Botanic Gardens.

Last modified:
Wednesday, 10-Sep-2008 12:50:51 PDT