Research Centers & Labs

Research Laboratories

The Department of Communication Studies maintains two interaction labs. These labs are equipped with audio/video recording equipment, one-sided mirrors, and control rooms for non-obtrusive observation of groups or dyads. Currently, one of the interaction labs is configured as a living room for dyadic and family research. The second lab is configured for focus groups and small group research.

Graduate Student Computer Lab

Independent of the research facilities, the department maintains a graduate student computer lab equipped with up-to-date PC and Macintosh computers, scanners, and color-printers. The lab also houses a Macintosh computer system that is devoted to videotape analysis.

University of Minnesota Libraries

The University of Minnesota Libraries is one of the University's and the State's greatest intellectual and capital assets. Housed in five major facilities and eleven branch sites, the University Libraries comprise of over 5.7 million print volumes, 45,000 serial subscriptions, 5.7 million microforms, 2.6 million government documents, and 400,000 maps, making it the 17th largest research library in North America. The Libraries circulates more than 1 million items annually to students, faculty, and staff.

To support such a large and complex institution as the University of Minnesota, the Libraries acquire catalogs, and maintain information in practically every field of knowledge, in every language, from every time period, and in every conceivable format. The Libraries have outstanding collections in the history of medicine, social welfare, computing, architecture, American poetry, Afro-American literature, children's literature, history of European expansionism, cartography, British colonialism in India, Scandinavian studies, forestry, engineering and technical standards, and federal and international government documents.