The last three years have brought significant changes in the University Library. Guided by the library's Strategic Plan we have focused on the needs of our community, fostered engagement, and built partnerships. In the last two years we've made great strides in accomplishing our goals and objectives. The articles in this inaugural newsletter highlight some of our accomplishments.
What will you find in this inaugural issue?
When you were in college did you ever wish you had a personal librarian you could reach out to for assistance? Personal librarian programs are being implemented at universities of all sizes across the country. We decided to take a slightly different path to implementation at Santa Clara. Helene Lafrance describes our program, the students we are reaching, and our initial success.
Space, and additional study space, continues to be in great demand in the library. Based on feedback gathered over an eight-month process we have completely redesigned the first floor of the library. Read more about our process and see pictures of the before and after in the article by Elizabeth McKeigue and me.
Have you ever wondered what life was like when the Mission was founded? Thanks to a two-year donor funded archivist position, we have now processed and made available the Mission Santa Clara Manuscript Collection covering 1777-1851. Erin Louthen and Tom Farrell provide highlights of the collection and you can view portions of the collection online along with selected translations.
Outside of additional study space, one of the top requests from students was for popular reading material. Last year we started a popular reading collection, conveniently located on the first floor of the library. Rice Majors describes the collection, which gives both students and faculty a break from academic reading, and offers some statistics on usage.
I hope you enjoy reading more about our programs. And you can expect to hear more from us. We'll be publishing this newsletter twice a year to keep you up-to-date on all our activities. We would love to hear from you as well! What are your memories of the library? Send me your memories at jnutefall@scu.edu.
Thank you for your continuing support of Santa Clara University Library.
Jennifer Nutefall
University Librarian