Buswell Mission and Values

The library takes its mission from the college, our parent institution. In part, Wheaton College’s mission is to promote "the development of whole and effective Christians through excellence in programs of Christian higher education" (college catalogue). Excellent academic programs rely on excellent libraries. Wheaton’s academic programs guide us in determining what our library’s goals should be.

We are blessed at Wheaton with students and faculty who are spiritually and intellectually alive, serious about their studies, and a pleasure to serve. This is the group whose needs we strive to understand and meet. Some libraries take the view that they ought simply to give their users whatever they ask for, however uninformed their desires might be. We believe instead that an education should be formative, that as faculty we are called upon to guide our students toward greater understanding and discernment. "I am the food of the full-grown; become a man and thou shalt feed on me" (Augustine, Confessions vii. 10; also Ephesians 4:11-16). In other words, we seek to understand and meet our library users’ true needs. We seek to discern these needs through observation, study, and discussion, both with library users and with our colleagues in the profession.

We understand our library’s mission as having four primary goals: 1) to collect or lease high-quality resources in the most useful formats—print, electronic, etc., 2) to organize and catalogue these resources in ways that promote their use, 3) to increase our faculty’s and students’ ability at finding the most suitable resources for each particular need, and 4) to preserve these resources, so that they will be available to future members of our community in turn.

We are currently seeking to expand and deepen our efforts in support of the third goal listed above. Some academic libraries today fear that students will increasingly bypass library resources in favor of freely available websites. Students will do this, however, only if such sources and research methods meet the academic standards of their institutions. At Wheaton we know that our library’s printed and electronic resources will be in demand for as long as our professors require high-quality academic work from our students. But it is true that as the quantity, variety, and complexity of library resources grow, good research skills are becoming more difficult to develop. Thus the teaching function of the library is growing in importance. It is essential for us to work with the teaching faculty to equip our students with the skills they need to make full use of all that the library can offer.

A note on printed vs. electronic collections: Buswell is eager to incorporate new technology into the library where its worth is evident. We also believe that printed materials remain valuable and even preferable for some scholarly purposes. We expect that the various areas of study—sciences, humanities, biblical and theological studies, and professional studies—will diverge from one another in the coming years in the relative value each one places on printed versus electronic formats. Both formats will remain important to our community as a whole, and Buswell’s collections will continue to include both formats for as far into the future as we can now imagine.

Our Values

Buswell Library is a department of Wheaton College, which seeks to "develop whole and effective Christians through excellence in programs of higher education." Within that framework, we have identified the following six values to guide our daily work and decisions:

1. Liberal education
   A strong library is essential to the college’s academic programs. We build collections and provide services that support the academic endeavors of our community. In partnership with the teaching faculty, the library faculty and staff seek to instill in our students a love of reading, study, and investigation, and help them to develop skills they need to succeed in college and in their lives.

2. Service
   The library is focused on its patrons and desires to provide the best possible service to them. The library faculty and staff seek to be well informed, helpful, and available. We reach out to patrons and potential patrons and initiate activities that contribute positively to the academic life of the college.

3. Stewardship
   We take seriously our responsibility to collect and preserve the works that fit within our collection-development goals. We care for our collections to the best of our ability.

4. Breadth
   The strength of the library lies in its breadth and inclusiveness. In support of the college’s aims to help students "think and behave redemptively" and "engage together the full breadth of human thought" (college catalogue), our collections offer many viewpoints and arguments that serve to help our students develop their discernment.

5. Collegiality
   We cultivate a congenial, professional working environment for all library faculty and staff. We set common goals and support one another in accomplishing them for the good of the library as a whole. We strive to build positive relationships with all members of the campus community.

6. Visionary thinking
   We stay informed of current trends in our profession, and we make plans for the library’s future well-being. We look for opportunities to improve and build upon our current services and collections.

Buswell Library Mission
Last update: August 2007