The Daisaku and Kaneko Ikeda Library
The Daisaku and Kaneko Ikeda Library is named after the founders of Soka University of America (SUA). The mission of SUA is to foster a steady stream of global citizens committed to living a contributive life. Daisaku and Kaneko Ikeda Library supports our students, faculty, and staff in their endeavors to meet their academic and personal goals as we all work together toward fulfilling the SUA mission. To that end, the library actively engages in teaching information literacy skills, facilitates access to information, and provides spaces for scholastic collaboration and intellectual exploration.
The materials held by Ikeda Library are chosen according to their relevance to the curricula of the courses at SUA. The print book collection contains 95,000 titles in English and in the four languages taught at Soka: Chinese, French, Japanese, and Spanish. The library currently subscribes to over 110 online databases, offering students easy access to 420,000 electronic books and 35,000 periodicals. The librarians actively update these collections and offer instruction in optimizing their use. Students and faculty are also encouraged to recommend materials for the library to purchase.
The media collection includes works that contribute to the teaching of all disciplines in the university curricula, and it also boasts popular films chosen to support students in their studies, foreign language development, and for their leisure viewing. Over 104,000 films and music recordings are also accessible from the databases.
The interlibrary loan (ILL) service provides the campus community the means to access materials not found within the library collection. Students can request resources from other libraries at no cost by submitting an ILL form. Periodical articles are usually emailed to the students. The books are mailed to the library, and the students are then asked to check out the books at the library.
Through collaboration with the faculty, the library is pursuing its mission of promoting information literacy to assist students in becoming efficient and effective researchers. The librarians visit classes to present library research skills related to course assignments using hands-on activities. Students are also welcome to attend research-related workshops offered throughout each semester. These sessions cover a variety of research topics and are a great way to develop searching strategies and source evaluation skills.
In addition to classroom instruction sessions, individualized research consultations are available to all SUA students. Walk-in inquiries, emails, phone calls, and online chats are all welcome, and are responded to in a timely manner. Students may use an online registration system to schedule an appointment with a librarian. The library also offers several research guides on its website. These guides contain useful information about library services and resources and are designed to help students in their studies and to develop their information literacy skills.
On each floor of the library, study desks and carrels are available for individual study. For collaborative work or film viewing, group study rooms are open to students during the library operation hours. They are equipped with a TV, a DVD/Blu-ray/VHS player, and a whiteboard. Reservations are not required, but they are recommended and can also be made online.
There are two study rooms open for student use at all times: the 24-Hour Study Room, located on the 2nd floor of the library, and room 461 on the 4th floor of the library. The Grand Reading Room #400 is open from 8 a.m. to midnight daily.
For more information about the library’s services and collections, please contact the library or visit the website. Phone: 949.480.4205, Email: library@soka.edu,
Website: http://ikedalibrary.soka.edu, Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ IkedaLibrary, Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ikedalibrary/, and Twitter: https://twitter.com/IkedaLibrary
The University Archives Office
As part of the Ikeda Library, the University Archives Office gathers and manages scholastic, historic, and cultural materials that reflect the actions, values, and founders of SUA; the campus activities of students, faculty and staff; and the notable accomplishments of SUA alumni. Select items from the SUA Archives Office have been used to supplement the academic holdings of the Ikeda Library, such as digital video recordings of academic events, commencement ceremonies, conference proceedings from the Soka Education Conference, and writings related to the history of Soka education. The University Archives Office holds additional records that can be used to support student learning. For more information, please visit https://libguides.soka.edu/archive or email archive@soka.edu.