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Library Showcase - Elizabeth Huth Coates Library

Elizabeth Huth Coates

San Antonio, TX

Main lobby of the Elizabeth Huth Coates Library.

Each year the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), presents three ACRL Excellence in Academic Libraries awards, one each to an outstanding community college, college, and university library. It is sponsored by Blackwell's Book Services, which provides a $3,000 gift to each winning library.

The award recognizes the accomplishments of librarians and other library staff as they come together as members of a team to support the mission of their institution. An academic library may demonstrate excellence through various different ways, including creativity and innovation in meeting the needs of their academic community; leadership in developing and implementing exemplary programs that other libraries can emulate; and substantial and productive relationships with classroom faculty and students.

The Elizabeth Huth Coates Library, of Trinity University, a private, liberal arts institution in San Antonio, Texas, was the 2007 award recipient for the college library category. Trinity enrolls a diverse student body of just over 2,500 undergraduate and 230 graduate students. The library is large for an institution of this size, with a collection totaling approximately 1,139,460 items. Its mission, in part, "supports and stimulates teaching and learning by providing an environment in which instruction and research can thrive. It also develops information literacy among students and faculty so that they may effectively use all forms of information in teaching and learning."

Students gather in the main lobby.

The Elizabeth Huth Coates Library impressed the selection committee with its wide-ranging and innovative services for both students and faculty. Frances Maloy, chair of the 2007 ACRL Excellence in Academic Libraries selection committee and division leader of Access Services at Emory University commented, “Using the guiding philosophy of experimenting with ‘all things new,’ staff created user centric virtual and physical learning spaces as well as research spaces. The fully integrated information literacy program engages library users at all levels beginning with the first-year seminar to the ‘Focus on Faculty’ workshop series. The library’s web site incorporates chat reference, a downloadable library toolbar, federated searching, and a comprehensive set of digital resources.

“The Coates Library also boasts a GIS (geographic information system) librarian who leads the campus development of GIS research and teaching. Through the establishment of their own institutional repository, called Digital Commons, they led the development of a consortial repository called the Liberal Arts Scholarly Repository (LASR). The library staff demonstrates that they know their community and extend themselves and library services to be wherever students and faculty are.”

“The Trinity library staff and I are honored to receive this award,” said Diane J. Graves, University Librarian at Trinity University. “I am fortunate to have not only an amazing team of colleagues to work with, but an administration that supports the library when we want to try something innovative. Even more, Trinity's faculty and students have been a source of inspiration as they provide suggestions and feedback about what they want the library to do and be.”