Located at the heart of the Skidmore College campus, the Lucy Scribner Library offers a comfortable and productive environment designed for research and collaboration. The Library was built in 1966 and most recently renovated in 2012, which enhanced the library’s services by adding new seating areas, study carrels, and group study rooms. The library has a variety of print, electronic, and audiovisual material including over 350,000 print volumes, 70,000 full-text journals, and 250 databases, all of which have been carefully selected to support the teaching and research needs of the Skidmore community.

Lucy Scribner Library Mission Statement

The Lucy Scribner Library is dedicated to the educational and scholarly activities of the Skidmore community, and provides the resources and services necessary to support the College’s mission “to prepare liberally educated graduates to continue their quest for knowledge and to make the choices required of informed, responsible citizens.” Library personnel uphold and encourage inclusive excellence, creativity, and integrity throughout the learning process. To this end, we work to:

• Develop, preserve, and provide access to collections that resonate with diverse populations and inspire lifelong learning;
• Create and maintain dynamic spaces for collaboration and study that foster intellectual discovery;
• Educate and engage library users to become discerning, self-directed researchers and constructive participants in a global society;
• Assess and evaluate services and resources to assure that the library continually evolves to meet the needs of a changing cultural, social, and information landscape.

Social Justice Commitment

The Lucy Scribner Library has an active Social Justice group that meets biweekly.  This group is comprised of hourly staff, exempt staff, and library faculty with the library director serving in an ex officio capacity.  The mission of this group is to identify/recognize barriers or structural problems related to justice, equity, and inclusivity, work to understand these problems, figure out what is needed to remedy them, mobilize the library team to address them, and hold ourselves accountable to timely follow through.

To reach out to the Social Justice group send an email to sjgroup@skidmore.edu .

History

The Lucy Scribner Library was the first academic building on Skidmore College’s new Jonsson Campus. Originally designed by O’Neill, Ford and Associates, the building was constructed in 1966 with 50,000 square feet and a capacity for 400,000 print volumes.

In the early 1990s, it became clear that the existing structure should be expanded and renovated in order to continue to serve the needs of the College. Architects Shepley, Bulfinch, Richardson and Abbott, a Boston firm noted for its work on academic libraries, were selected for the renovation. The new design increased the Library’s size to 75,000 square feet, creating a spacious interior that captures natural light and harmonizes with the surrounding landscape. Ground was broken in May 1994 and the renovated and expanded Scribner Library opened its doors in August 1995.

The most recent renovation was completed in the autumn of 2012, adding 250 seats, 12 new study carrels, and 13 new group study rooms. Additionally, the department of Information Technology, the College Writing Center, and the newly created Documentary Studies lab were all relocated to the Library.

Art in the Library

The artworks displayed in the Scribner Library include pieces by the internationally recognized artists Grace Hartigan, Terry Frost, Irene Rice Pereira, and Edward Corbett. Works on view also include paintings and sculpture by Skidmore alumni. The annual juried exhibition “Student Art in the Library” provides a venue for Skidmore students to display their work in the building throughout the academic year. The works are also digitally archived in the library’s repository Creative Matter.