About the Collections
Collection Strengths
Popular Fiction
Popular fiction predominates our collection, particularly novels in the romance, mystery-detective, science fiction-fantasy, and western genres. The Library also contains extensive collections of late 19th- and 20th-century juvenile/young adult series fiction.
Popular Entertainment
The Browne Popular Culture Library houses thousands of primary works relating to all kinds of popular entertainment, with particular strengths in materials documenting mass media: television, motion pictures, and radio.
Graphic Arts
The Browne Popular Culture Library has numerous items representing graphic elements such as: one of the largest comic collection in the U.S., a large collection of graphic novels, tens of thousands of book covers, calendars, trading cards, posters, etc.
But Wait, There's More!
Teen Culture & Counterculture
The BPCL currently contains more than 250 radical, anti-establishment, and counter-culture serial titles (nearly 2,000 issues), ranging in dates from 1950 to 1989. These primary research materials, along with many other resources, are excellent resources for examining the social and cultural history of the 1960s, 1970s, and subsequent decades.
Foodways & Cookery
For those who love to explore other cultures, or our own, through food, the Browne Popular Culture Library holds an impressive array of resources on foodways and cookery in the form of cookbooks, manuals, realia, etc.
Advertising Images
Our collection contains many different kinds of images that represent advertising in some form, from movie to cosmetics. Come on up to the 4th floor and see such things as: movie posters, trading cards, mail order catalogs, magazine advertisements, advertising proofs, etc.
Rules of Thumb
- Our business hours are more limited than the main floor.
- We're an archive/repository, so most of our materials cannot be checked out.
- Most of our collection is not open for browsing. You need to request materials at our reference desk with your university ID or a photo ID. You will also need to fill out a request form.
- Manuscript collection materials can be requested by calling our Reference Desk at 419-372-2450 or emailing us at bpcl@libanswers.bgsu.edu.
- Some of our materials are available off-site, so notify us early and allow us a few days to get materials ready if you are visiting from a distance.
- The reference collection is open for browsing! It's the best place to get started with popular culture research.
- We have a scanner/copier available for copying materials that cannot be checked out - you just need a BG1 card. A scanner is also available, but at no charge.
- To check out DVDs, you will need a valid BGSU ID.
Updated: 04/14/2025 09:33AM