Our Service Philosophy

Changing Lives, Changing the World 2017

  • access and inclusion
     
  • academic rigor and creativity
     
  • education for impact
     

Swarthmore College Mission

Swarthmore students are expected to prepare themselves for full, balanced lives as individuals and as responsible citizens through exacting intellectual study supplemented by a varied program of sports and other extracurricular activities. The purpose of Swarthmore College is to make its students more valuable human beings and more useful members of society. Although it shares this purpose with other educational institutions, each school, college, and university seeks to realize that purpose in its own way. Swarthmore seeks to help its students realize their full intellectual and personal potential combined with a deep sense of ethical and social concern.

Swarthmore College Mission

Recommendation #1

The College should develop a standalone mission statement that speaks directly and simply for the College, and which can be unquestionably recognized as such by the average visitor to our website. We also recommend that we maintain a more nuanced explication in the spirit of what currently exists.

The Provost's Division provides the academic infrastructure and services essential for ensuring student learning, and supports the academic mission of the College by empowering faculty, instructional staff, and support staff.

Swarthmore College Libraries Mission

As the center of community, the Libraries foster critical inquiry, scholarly discovery and engagement, and innovation and creativity - a dynamic forum for people and ideas.


I truly believe that we are creating a community in which everyone—staff, faculty, students, alumni, and friends—has the potential to be a lifelong learner, and that we have much we can learn from each other...My highest hope is that our community will embrace our common humanity as well as our dazzling array of differences.  As we become an increasingly diverse community, we will cultivate curiosity about ideas and experiences and beliefs that challenge us, about people who are different from us, and experiences that are unfamiliar.

                                                                             — Valerie Smith, 2016

WHY ARE WE DOING THIS?

QUESTIONS TO INFORM A SERVICE PHILOSOPHY

  • What does Swarthmore value?
     
  • What does my library value?
     
  • What are the outcomes?
     
  • Are our outcomes aligned with these values?

QUESTIONS TO INFORM A SERVICE PHILOSOPHY

WHAT DO WE WANT TO DO?

  • What are the benchmarks for this service?
     
  • Who is our audience?
     
  • What do we have?
     
  • What is the extent of support we can offer?

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By Swarthmore Reference