Milligan Library Life
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Named after the Restoration Movement leader and minister from Ohio, the P. H. Welshimer Memorial Library has served the Milligan College community for nearly fifty years. The three-floor building was first occupied in November 1961, the gift of the T. W. Phillips, Jr. Charitable Trust and the Phillips family of Butler, Pennsylvania, after an initial gift by the Kresge Foundation of Detroit, Michigan. In addition to print books, periodicals, and non-print media, the Library provides access to bibliographic and full-text journal, e-reference, and e-book literature through numerous online databases and electronic resources.
Historically, the library was viewed as a place to “house” collections of largely physical information resources—print books and journals; analog, magnetic, and optical audio and video media; documents on microfilm or fiche. The library’s primary mission was to collect, organize, and oversee the preservation of knowledge as a relatively scarce commodity in support of the academic aims of the College. Students and faculty were compelled to come to the library because it was the single point of access for information resources on campus. Spaces for users were also oriented toward interaction with information resources, typically as a solitary activity. Even “casual” spaces, when provided, were not purposed for socializing between library users but were designed for informal interaction with books and magazines.
Today, physical information resources, though still important, comprise only a portion of the library’s collections, which are increasingly virtual in nature—electronic books; journal articles accessed from online databases; audio and video files streamed through media servers. The library is still tasked with collecting, organizing, and facilitating access to information resources, including those pertaining to the College. But knowledge is no longer scarce. If anything, the problem is now one of over-abundance. The library is no longer a single point of access. A web browser opens many points of access to information resources from numerous sources. These resources are increasingly disassociated from the library as a physical location. A student or professor can just as easily access library or Internet information resources on a computer from home, or on a smartphone from a coffee shop across town—or another part of the world. Coming to the library is now a choice, not a compulsion. Support of the academic aims of the College remains primary to its mission, but the shape of the library’s handling of resources, use of space, and relationship with its users will continue to change.
In light of this, the P.H. Welshimer Memorial Library will:
- Provide students and faculty with the best available information resources, in physical and virtual formats, oriented toward use, and selected for appropriateness to the curriculum of Milligan College
- Facilitate trouble-free access to information resources through electronic and physical delivery services (including, but not limited to, on-campus and remote access to library resources from its website, resource discovery tools, interlibrary loan, and distance education book and media lending)
- Collect, organize, and make available the documentary history and research activities of Milligan College
- Promote a user-centric service attitude by being aware of and responsive to users’ information needs and information seeking behaviors
- Instruct users in efficient searching, effective evaluation, and appropriate use of information resources
- Show leadership in making users aware of new resources and emerging information technologies
- Actively seek opportunities to collaborate with faculty in teaching and with students in learning
- Design flexible and adaptable individual and group spaces that facilitate teaching and learning, cultural engagement, casual refreshment, and social interaction
Mission Statement was approved for adoption by the Library Staff 02.04.2011
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