Mission Statement

The Rivier University Libraries support the educational mission of Rivier University in its efforts to “educate the whole person in the context of an academic community that cultivates critical thought, sound judgment, and respect for all people. This community supports the intellectual growth of all its members while offering them opportunities for social, cultural, moral and spiritual development.“

The Libraries provide resources and services to foster academic excellence in the Rivier University community. They seek to empower their community members to become lifelong learners and discerning consumers of information. The Libraries support both the Rivier University liberal arts curriculum and its professional programs. The Rivier University Libraries operate in the spirit of free and open intellectual inquiry and respect the tenets of the Library Bill of Rights, the Freedom to Read Statement, and the American Library Association’s various interpretations of these policies.

In support of this mission, the Rivier University Libraries will:

• Select and acquire resources in varied formats to support the instructional, research, and curriculum goals of the University.
• Continually re-engineer the new information environment by providing effective and timely access to both traditional and electronic resources.
• Make available to users those information resources required, whether from the immediate collection, full-text electronic databases, document delivery or other forms of interlibrary cooperation.
• Organize materials according to national bibliographic standards to facilitate patron access.
• Continually evaluate the collections to provide current scholarship and retain a standard core of research resources.
• Monitor and assess services and implement appropriate changes to meet the academic goals of the programs.
• House the collections in facilities that are easily accessible and that safeguard and preserve the collections.
• Support the University curriculum and uphold information literacy standards by introducing students to library services and collections and by teaching information-seeking skills according to the guidelines set by the Association for College and Research Libraries (ACRL) and the New England Commission of Higher Education (NECHE). The Libraries also provide instructional services in a variety of settings: classroom, online, individual conferencing, and drop-in assistance.
• Develop and maintain constructive relationships with faculty, students, alumni, and other members of the University community.
• Provide an effective library infrastructure with strong management and professional support services.
• Develop and engage in constructive efforts to share information resources with New Hampshire College and University Council (NHCUC) members, and other libraries worldwide through the interlibrary loan program.