Mission

The Lucy Scribner Library provides the resources and services necessary to support the educational mission of Skidmore College. To this end, we work to:

-Develop, preserve, and facilitate access to both physical and virtual collections

-Educate library users to enable them to locate, retrieve, evaluate and appropriately use information

-Create and maintain a physical and virtual environment appropriate for the use of these resources

-Ensure the highest level of service to the Skidmore College community by a responsive, highly qualified staff

-Widen the flow and bridge the gaps of communication between faculty, students, and the library

-Create a library, both physical and virtual, that is simple to use and that enables our users to be independent, self-directed researchers

-Establish the Library as one of the “intellectual centers” of the community

-Develop an evaluation process that assesses continually library services and resources.

History

The Lucy Scribner Library, in its location as well as its purpose, is at the heart of Skidmore College. The first academic building on the Jonsson Campus, it was originally designed by O'Neill, Ford and Associates and constructed in 1966 with 50,000 squarefeet of usable space and a capacity for 400,000 volumes.

In the early 1990s, when that capacity was rapidly being approached, it became clear that the existing structure would need to be expanded and renovated in order to continue to serve the needs of the College. Architects Shepley Bulfinch Richardson and Abbott, a Boston firm noted for its work on academic libraries, created a spacious design that captures natural light and harmonizes with the surrounding landscape. With its increased space of 75,000 square feet, there is ample book and study space and capacity for the new technology of today's "virtual library." Ground was broken in May 1994 and the renovated and expanded Scribner Library opened its doors in August 1995.