The biology collection supports research and teaching in Biology Department at the undergraduate, masters and doctoral levels, as well as collection needs in the biological sciences from other disciplines at Boston College. Materials are collected in all areas of the biological sciences to cover the need for undergraduate teaching.
Areas of collection strength reflect faculty research areas and include molecular cell biology and genetics, neurobiology, immunity, bioinformatics, developmental biology and physiology, and structural biology and cellular biochemistry.
For information about how the library collections at Boston College are being developed, go to the Collections page.
Please feel free to recommend items for the library collections by e-mailing the Biology Librarian, Enid Karr.
When acquiring new monographs in Biology, both e-Books and print books are considered. Some factors in the decision-making process include: preference of faculty recommending purchase, nature of the work (is it a book of stand-alone chapters, meant to be read like journal articles, or a book meant to be read cover to cover, or a reference book), price differential between electronic and print versions, earlier publication in one format or the other, and e-Book platform issues. This list is not comprehensive, as the nature of e-Books and their marketing is a rapidly evolving area. Also see the Boston College Libraries general policies on the E-Books at Boston College guide.
In addition to purchases made for Biology, we have access to vast collections of public domain e-Books (generally older and out of copyright, but also materials created by the government) which can be found via Holmes.
Please send any feedback related to e-Book acquisition to karre@bc.edu.
The Secret of Life by 
