Library Mission

Approved by SWAU's Library Advisory Committee, August 2, 2006

Chan Shun Centennial Library's mission is to help SWAU's faculty and students find and use the scholarly resources needed to succeed in their academic pursuits; the spiritual and inspirational resources they desire to develop a vibrant Christian life; and the recreational resources they enjoy to develop lifelong habits of curiosity and learning.

In support of this mission, the library staff makes these commitments to Southwestern:

To acquire, organize, preserve, and provide access to scholarly material in all media and to help patrons find information available at the university's Library and elsewhere. First and foremost, the library supports the curriculum at Southwestern.

To create an environment that supports vigorous academic and spiritual inquiry by developing whole Christians, who are focused on service and the pursuit of truth. The library will include a diversity of materials necessary to successful critical analysis of the questions raised in the disciplines explored at Southwestern. Among these resources will be a strong selection of materials that explain and advocate the Seventh-day Adventist Christian understanding of life and mission.

To support scholarship by embracing the American Library Association's principles of ethical conduct for library staff, intellectual freedom, and access to information. The staff is committed to providing professional, high quality service by integrating the profession's best practices, standards, guidelines, and codes of ethics into each aspect of the library's services.

To enhance the quality of academic programs and achievement on campus through exceptional library staff, facilities, resources, and services. The library staff is committed to an ongoing process of review and evaluation to ensure that our services, resources, and staff are creating an optimal learning environment for Southwestern's students.

To guide the Southwestern community into the 21st century information world of accessing with confidence the recorded knowledge of millennia. The library staff recognizes the increasing need for information literacy instruction and will work with all departments on campus to provide individual, course-based, discipline- based, or university-wide instruction as requested.

To provide parity of service to all members of the Southwestern academic community, including our distance learning students. The needs of each member of the SWAU community will be taken into account when providing services, with the goal of parity of service to all members.