Library Visit: Alson H. Smith Jr. Library at Shenandoah University

The Alson H. Smith Jr. Library is the academic library at Shenandoah University.

Digital Access

https://libguides.su.edu/UniversityLibraries

The website a very clean, uncluttered look. The search is hosted by WorldCat Discovery – you can search by books, music scores, videos, articles, and Everything. From the home page you can access journals, articles by citation, databases and e-resources, research guides, course reserves, and Google Scholar. In the About section, names and contact info of library staff are listed.

There are many services accessible through the website – interlibrary loans, library instruction (searching databases and evaluating sources), and research support (creating research guides tailored to a specific assignment, using Zotero to organize sources, using metrics), to name a few. As you would expect with an academic library, the website is very research-centered. However, the homepage does have a river of popular reading titles. The library is also open to community users for a $10.00 fee.

Physical Space/Collections

The Smith Library is located on the Shenandoah University campus. While there is campus parking, it is evident from the grounds layout that most students walk to the library. The outside of the building is modern brick-and-glass, with bike racks and a nice outdoor seating area shaded by trees. Colorful Adirondack chairs are outside, and dot the campus. Beyond the automatic door, the inside is very open, spacious, and brightly-lit by floor-to-ceiling windows. There are many groupings of chairs and tables, some café-style and some living-room style. The circulation desk is to the left as you enter, and is also very spacious.

The first floor has two scanners and one over-size scanner for high-definition printing. There is also a printing station that uses the Wēpa print app. This floor houses the reference section, popular reading, cds, and dvds. There is a study room, many study carrels, and a jigsaw puzzle table. A guest may access the wifi by filling out a short registration form, then getting an email with a username and password that is valid for 24 hours. I noted that there was only one OPAC on this floor, one of only two in the building (the Circulation Supervisor tols me that she will often let students use the circ desk’s iPad to search the catalog). You make take the elevator to any of the four floors.

The second floor is entirely non fiction stacks and study rooms. The non fiction is organized by the Library of Congress classification system. There are MANY study areas on this floor, of a variety of types: single study carrels, group study rooms with hinged doors, 2-person study rooms with sliding glass doors – all rooms are equipped with white boards. There are also open-area group-work tables, and beanbag chairs.

The third floor houses the music resources. Exploring this floor reminded me that this is after all the Shenandoah College and Conservatory of Music. Almost all of the collection on this floor are bound volumes of musical manuscripts. There is also a room with oversized manuscripts and scores – these items do not circulate and must be retrieved by staff, but copies can be made. In the same room as these is another collaborative work space with a large white board.

The basement level houses the rest of the non fiction collection, and back periodicals. There are a few tables here, and a vending machine, as well as some staff offices. This floor definitely felt like a basement floor, and was very uninviting – I couldn’t picture people studying there.

People

The circulation desk was staffed by two young women – one is the Circulation Supervisor and is in her last semester of MLIS. The other is the Access Services and Archives Assistant, and is in fact also an Information Assistant at the Bowman branch of the Handley Library. Also working the floor was the Reference and Instructional Librarian. I asked what the library looked like on a given day during the school year in terms of staff and students – I was surprised to hear that even during the school year the library is quite quiet. In terms of staff, the circ desk will normally have the Circulation Supervisor and a student employee. Other librarians – such as the Reference Librarian and the Health Sciences Librarian – will be scattered about the building, as well as the Director.

Impressions

It is very evident from the layout of this library that it is a place for study and collaboration – the amount of study rooms and group work areas is impressive. In the section “The Library’s Evolving Space,” Rubin and Rubin examine ways that libraries have adjusted their spaces to accommodate the changing needs of their patrons – with more emphasis on creating areas of collaboration and engagement (Rubin & Rubin, 2020, p. 309). I could easily see groups of students working together here, quite comfortably, and with the assistance of a very helpful and knowledgeable staff. I could also imagine students relaxing here, perhaps unwinding at the jigsaw puzzle table. I could tell from the breadth of services available from the website that students here are very well-supported in their studies.

Rubin, R. E., & Rubin, R. G. (2020). Foundations of library and information science (5th ed.). ALA Neal-Schuman.