JKM Library: About the JKM Library: Mission Statement & Policies

	: Spring 2024 Library Hours

The Jennie King Mellon Library’s mission is to advance the academic endeavors of Chatham University students, faculty, and staff by:

Acquiring, organizing, preserving, promoting and providing access to resources that meet our community's diverse and changing research needs;
Offering timely reference assistance and expert instruction that fosters information competency;
Collaborating with Chatham faculty and staff to help students develop progressively complex critical thinking and research skills in the pursuit of scholarly achievement and life-long learning;
Maintaining a virtual and physical environment conducive to teaching and learning;
Encouraging and sustaining a high level of service by our staff.

Please consult the Borrowing Policies chart to determine loan times, fines, and other information based on your status.

The Jennie King Mellon Library's Collection Development Policy

The University Archives housed in the Jennie King Mellon Library was established to support the ongoing educational and administrative needs of the Chatham University community through appraisal, collection, organization, description, preservation, and access to the university’s records of permanent administrative, cultural, and historical value, records that document the educational activities of the university’s faculty, staff, students, and records and artifacts that document the achievements of university alumni. The University Archives:

engages university faculty, staff, and students with the history of the university by collaborating on, developing, and delivering instructional services and tools that enhance historical understanding, information literacy, and primary source research skills,
promotes knowledge and understanding of Chatham University by preserving, contextualizing, and making publicly accessible a vast array of records documenting the development of the university’s programs and its communities of students, faculty, staff, and alumni,
furnishes access to the Archives through reference services, reproduction services, and through multiple points of discovery facilitated by rich descriptions and exhibitions that contextualize the collections,
guides the appraisal, collection, preservation, and access to administrative, legal, fiscal and permanent records of Chatham University.

Updated 4/7/2023

The mission of Special Collections is to identify, preserve, and provide access to and reference assistance for rare, fragile, and unique materials held by the Jennie King Mellon Library, including materials of considerable scholarly, cultural, or monetary value. The mission of library staff in acquiring and maintaining these materials is to support research and instruction at Chatham University as well as the integrity of our subject specific collections.

Collection Development Policy for Special Collections