Mission Statement
The mission of the B. Davis Schwartz Memorial Library is to
support the goals of Long Island University and the C.W. Post Campus
by providing our students and their teachers access to the recorded
knowledge of the past as well as to the literature of their current
disciplines, and to offer all members of the C.W. Post community
the best possible informational resources and environment for research
and study.
The Library strives to fulfill the mission of educating our students
for today and for the future as productive, socially responsible, and
broadly educated citizens by the judicious selection of both print and
non-print materials, by the use of traditional methods and new
technologies to organize and access the collections, and by the active
involvement of a skilled professional staff and coordination among its
various departments.
The Library subscribes to the American Library Association's
"Library
Bill of Rights."
Goals and Objectives
The overall goal of the Library is to continue to promote
excellence in all phases of its endeavors; to assess the resources
of the Library in order to remain a vital and dynamic part of the
learning programs of the Campus; to embrace state-of-the-art
technologies for organizing and accessing information; to insure
that every C.W. Post student learns the art of using an academic
library to its fullest potential; to provide the physical facilities
necessary to house a twenty-first century library collection; to
maintain a staff that provides the highest level of academic library
services; and to aim for a safe, healthful, and comfortable environment
conducive to the pursuit of knowledge.
Introduction to the Library
The B. Davis Schwartz Memorial Library,
with over 1,000,000 volumes and more than
5,000 periodicals and newspaper
subscriptions in its various public service
departments, has a capacity of 2.1 million
volumes and accommodates more than 800
students.
The library is open 86 hours a week,
including nights and weekends, with special
extended hours during final examination
periods.
The library has grown from a basic
collection started in the 1950s to a large
and diverse number of collections. The
Reference
Department includes a computerized
information retrieval center in addition to
extensive reference and research materials,
with a particularly strong collection of
legal resources.
The Government Information
Department includes a Federal Depository (housing over
a half million documents), a New York State
Depository, and extensive microfiche
collections in criminal justice and
education, with print and computerized
access to government information.
Current subscriptions to over 2,500
journals, and a large retrospective
collection, are maintained in the
Periodicals Department, with print and
computerized indexes to provide access to
the material.
The Instructional Media Center
contains a model children's library,
curriculum and audiovisual resources and
equipment, and production and preview
facilities.
The
Library and Information Science
Library primarily serves students in the
Palmer School of Library and Information
Science. There are more than 19,000
volumes in this specialized collection, and
260 current journals.
Other facilities include the Special
Collections Department, and the
Center
for Business Research.
The
Center
for Business Research
was developed through the integration of the
former Nassau County Research Library with
C.W. Post's existing resources. A broad
range of materials including trade
magazines, company directories,
international resources, Long Island files,
and financial services make this one of the
finest research libraries for business
students and professionals in the Northeast.
The Library collections of Long Island
University have been augmented by a
computerized networking system and by a
phone-wire service that removes the limits
on available information for scholars,
students, and the professional business
community. Networked computers
allow simultaneous multiuser access to many
databases, enabling users to retrieve bibliographic
records in a variety of subject fields.
In
addition, Tax-related CD-ROMs may be found
in the Tax Library, and business-related
CD-ROMs are in the Center for Business
Research. Computerized access to DIALOG,
OCLC, NEXIS, and other online databases is also available.
Long Island University libraries are
data-linked through a telecommunications
network. Each campus site has compatible
computer terminals, communications
equipment, and multiplexed data lines linked
into the computer database at the C.W. Post
Campus. Through this linked network, L.I.U.
patrons are able to gain online
bibliographic access to the University's collections
(LIUCAT).
Each campus site
requests library materials via facsimile
transmission. Requests are received at the
C.W. Post Campus Library. Books, journal
articles, fiche-to-fiche copies, and other
library materials are sent to the requesting
campus via fax or the University courier
system. With the library network linkage,
the library services provided are
convenient, efficient and comprehensive.
An extensive instruction program is
available to graduate and undergraduate
students through class lectures,
demonstrations, and orientations. Database
instruction is offered regularly to
individuals and small groups. Library
education is provided to undergraduates
through a seven session library workshop.
Basic Internet instruction is also available
to students in a small group setting.
The library is also the home of the
School of Education, the
Palmer School of
Library and Information Science, the
Audiovisual Department, the
Office of Information
Technology, and the
Post Library
Association.
The Post Library Association, a
Friends of the Library organization, was
founded by Mrs. Carleton Palmer, a former
member of the Board of Trustees of Long
Island University and a professor of English
at C.W. Post. The PLA conducts many
cultural and educational programs in the
Hutchins Gallery. Alumni and other friends
of the University are cordially invited to
join the membership.
Through the generosity of the Carleton
H. and Winthrop B. Palmer Memorial Fund, an
endowment of over four million dollars
enables the library to purchase materials in
the arts and humanities in addition to its
regular budget for acquisitions.
The Special Collections Department
contains many notable holdings, such as: the
only portion of Eugene and Carlotta
O'Neill's personal library that survives as
a whole; the William Randolph Hearst
collection of over one hundred volumes of
photographs of objets d'art acquired by
"Citizen Kane" Hearst; a comprehensive
collection, donated by the Theodore
Roosevelt Association, of the life, times,
and writings of our 26th president; 5,000
movie posters mainly
from the 1940s and
1950s; letters by Henry James to his
publisher; and the Fine Art Facsimile
Editions of the Book of Kells and the Tres
Riches Heures of Jean, Duke of Berry.
The department also has the archives
of Long Island University, especially C.W.
Post, featuring a complete run of the
student newspaper, Pioneer, and the student
yearbook, Opticon, as well as other
University documents.
The American
Juvenile Collection (AJC)
contains children's books of
fiction and folklore printed by American Publishers between
1910 and 1960. It continues the gathering of children's books by
Christine B. Gilbert, formerly a professor at the Palmer School, that
included fiction and non-fiction, mostly from Great Britain, published
before 1909. The AJC retains a few of them, especially appropriate
fiction titles. It is anticipated that the
AJC, when complete, will
hold 25,000 titles, the most comprehensive depository on the
continent. Ultimately, the majority of the collection will be
first editions. Presently the AJC contains over 2,000 first
editions among its 5,250 volumes. Some of the books are
especially noteworthy: The Blind Pig's Book, an
artist's journal of his publishing colleagues by Kurt Wiese;
a dummy copy of The Little Stone House>, together with
the first edition by Berta and Elmer Hader, as well
as a good run of their many books; and an extensive collection of
the drawings and illustrated book by Paul Brown, a noted
Long Island illustrator.
The catalog
is available over the internet, or, for personal inquires, email
diana.spirt@liu.edu.
