Mission of Stockwell-Mudd Library

The Stockwell-Mudd Library supports the mission of Albion College by delivering a range of services that support a liberal arts education. The library develops resources that support the teaching and learning of the college's academic programs, provides access to information not locally available and provides instruction that fosters information literacy.

The staff provides a range of services that extends access to the wider world of information through various bibliographic access and document delivery mechanisms.  Librarians provide instruction which fosters life-long information retrieval and critical thinking skills.   

The library program is committed to supporting the values and goals of Albion’s Mission:

1.   “... to create and maintain a supportive, intellectually stimulating community in a residential setting which exhibits and prizes curiosity, creativity, dissent, and diversity.”

2.   the belief “in the fundamental worth of a broad exposure to intellectual and artistic achievement, to the best that has been thought and said about the world and our place in it.”

3.   introducing students “to classical modes of analysis, interpretation, and arguments; to unfolding scientific inquiry into the nature of the physical world; to the ways in which contemporary debates derive from and extend an historical but continuing dialogue about enduring questions.”

4.   “… students will find their own voices by paying attention to the finest expressions of Western and other intellectual and spiritual traditions.”

5.   “... encourage students to question and challenge” such traditions, “to evaluate ethically the social uses they serve and the ends they advocate.”

6.   “…encourage students to develop mastery in the methods by which knowledge is acquired, critically evaluated, and appropriately applied"

7.    "...prepare students for a lifetime of learning ..."

Goals

1.         Students and faculty are able to find information resources in appropriate formats to support their basic research and/or instructional needs.

2.       Library staff cooperate and coordinate with other academic and administrative units in developing and maintaining a strong information and instructional technology program on campus.

3.       Students and faculty are able to locate internal and external information sources in as transparent a manner as possible.

4.       Students will acquire a range of information skills that will enable them to retrieve and critically select the best available information in preparation for lifelong learning.