Oberlin College Library
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
148 West College Street
Oberlin, Ohio 44074 United States
| Oberlin College Libraries | |
|---|---|
 | |
 | |
| 41°17′37″N 82°13′00″W / 41.293714°N 82.216782°W | |
| Location | Oberlin College 148 West College Street Oberlin, Ohio 44074 United States |
| Type | Academic library |
| Established | 1833 |
| Other information | |
| Director | Dr. Valerie Hotchkiss[1] |
| Website | libraries |
The Oberlin College Libraries (OCL) is a system of libraries located in Oberlin, Ohio comprising the Mary Church Terrell Main Library, Clarence Ward Art Library, Conservatory Library, and Science Library.
The recipient of the ACRL Excellence in Academic Libraries Award in 2002, the Oberlin College Libraries are recognized for superior collections and services. The library system has more than 2.4 million items of print and media materials, as well as extensive online journals and research databases. OCL is a member of the OhioLINK consortium which provides rapid access to an additional 50 million volumes from colleges and universities across Ohio. On October 6, 2018, the Main Library located in the Mudd Center, was renamed for Oberlin graduate Mary Church Terrell (class of 1884, 1888, and Hon. 1948), who is held in high esteem because she was one of the first African-American women to earn a college degree [2]
Under the leadership of college librarian Azariah Smith Root (1887–1927), the Oberlin College Library grew by the end of his tenure to the sixteenth largest academic library in the nation. The former central library, which was funded by Andrew Carnegie, opened in 1908 and served both the college and the town of Oberlin for almost seven decades. The current main library in Mudd Center opened in 1974. The Oberlin College Library, under the direction of Library Director Eileen Thornton, was a founding member of OCLC[3] and under the direction of Ray English was the first independent college library to join the OhioLINK consortium.
The Oberlin College Library went under a name change from "library" to "libraries" in 2017 under the direction of Alexia Hudson-Ward (the second woman and first person of color to lead the libraries). This change highlighted the system's distinctiveness of being one of the few liberal arts college library systems with four libraries in the nation. Hudson-Ward also led the naming of the Mary Church Terrell Main Library in October 2018.
The library directors of the Oberlin Group, a national consortium of selective liberal arts college libraries, first met at Oberlin College in 1986.
