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On September 22, a gathering of Mount Saint Mary’s University students, faculty and staff gathered at the Charles Willard Coe library to celebrate its 75th anniversary. Kevin A. Barry, senior director of giving, read welcoming remarks from the Coe family, and the director of the University libraries, Danielle Salomon, gave an opening address while a large screen highlighted historic photos of the building. 

Although the Coe library was dedicated on May 11, 1947, the academic year was over on that day and most students and faculty were absent from campus. The decision was made to hold the celebration to coincide with National Banned Books Week, an event that shines the spotlight on attempts to censor reading.  

“We are currently in a time when more books are being banned than ever before and librarians are being attacked for doing their job,” said Salomon. “Libraries and librarians are essential to a democratic society, and we appreciate your support by being here today.”

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“It’s a grand building; I’ve always loved it.”

--Matthew Brossamer, PhD, department chair and professor, English

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The Coe library was the fifth building erected on the Chalon Campus and the last of the original buildings in the original 1926 master plan. The building was named after a California rancher whose daughter, Sister Mary Celine Coe, CSJ, contributed her inheritance for construction, and the Coe family coat-of-arms appears in stone over the entrance to the building. Additional funds for building and furnishing the library were raised by the Alumnae Association, which hosted a benefit tea and hat show on campus. The students also hosted a comedy night at the Wilshire Ebell Theater.  

Many people think of a library’s function, aside from being a great place to study, as simply a place to check out books. With the younger generation receiving much of their information in a digital format, are libraries going the way of the dinosaur? Not so fast, according to Salomon, who stressed that libraries are more relevant and needed than ever before. She quoted Linton Weeks, a writer for the Washington Post: “In the nonstop tsunami of global information, librarians provide us with floaties and teach us to swim.”  

“That’s what our work is now,” Salomon told the assembled guests, “teaching how to think critically about information and how to use it to create a better world.” Also, librarians help scholars obtain the materials they need for their work. For example, a few months ago, a Mount professor asked if he could obtain a copy of Rachel Maddow’s dissertation, which is housed in the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford and does not circulate. The Bodleian staff told Mount librarians that they would scan it for us if we received permission from the author.  

Claudia Alvarado, acquisitions coordinator, tried emailing Rachel Maddow. She didn’t get a response, so she tried WhatsApp. Someone from Rachel’s team responded, Rachel approved our request, and the faculty member was able to receive the scanned dissertation.   

Christian Teeter, EdD, associate professor of business administration, praised the librarians’ resourcefulness. “There’s always a quick response time to inquiries and they’re all intellectually curious,” he informed those gathered. “They’ll download chapters so students don’t have to buy an entire book, help locate materials and explain how to use databases. The library provides complimentary access to the Wall Street Journal, so that students have “a pulse of the world going on around them. It’s part of our sustaining commitment to academic excellence.” 

Luz Sandoval ’13, had no intention of becoming a librarian when she was first a student at the Mount. However, she said her student employment showed her that “libraries are not just about reading. Working here changed my life.” Salomon was pleased to introduce her as a speaker and to announce that she had recently accepted a position as the young adult librarian at the Camarillo Public Library. As a student employee at the Mount, Sandoval worked in circulation, technical services, and archives and special collections. She received her MLIS (master of library and information science) from UCLA, although while in grad school, she continued to work at the Mount as an archives assistant for now-retired archivist Vicky McCargar, who attended the library celebration and was effusive in her praise of Sandoval. 

A raffle was held for anniversary attendees for two bags of library-related goodies and books written by Mount faculty and alumnae. Titles included “Oaxaca: Home Cooking From the Heart of Mexico” by Bricia Lopez, 04, “The Antiracist World Language Classroom” co-authored by Krishauna Hines-Gaither, PhD, vice president of equity, diversity and justice; “Meaningful Work,” by JoAnna Novak, MFA, associate professor of creative writing; and “Witnessing Whiteness: The Journey Into Racial Awareness and Antiracist Action” by Shelly Tochluk, PhD, professor of education. 

“It’s wonderful to be able to be able to gather and celebrate the 75th anniversary of the library,” said Jen Chotiner, PhD, department chair and professor, biological sciences. “It’s such an important space for the Mount, and I hope we have more of these kinds of events.”  

¹ú²ú´«Ã½ LIBRARY FUN FACTS 

Miscellany 

• The original ground floor of the library was a large social hall with a 160-foot dance floor 
• In 1962, the same year that a library was established at the Doheny campus, library cards were issued for the first time  
• In 1967, a new periodical room was constructed
• From 1994-1995, the Coe library was completely renovated to accommodate new technology
• During both the Bel Air fire (1961) and the Getty Fire (2019), the fire came right up to the edge of the library, but the library itself wasn’t touched 
• The library is the second-largest employer of student workers on campus, hiring approximately 50 students every year 
• More than 100 people visited the M3 (makerspace) Lab in the library’s during the first two weeks of this semester. Last year, more people visited our makerspace than the University of Pittsburgh’s makerspace — and they have 28,000 students 

In our collection  

• 600,000 print and electronic books 
• 65,000 serials  
• 600-plus media titles  
• 5,800 photographs, videos, and scans in our digital asset management program 

Activity from the 2021-2022 academic year 

• 175,000 articles and ebooks retrieved from our database by Mount students, faculty and staff 
• 2300-plus interlibrary loan requests 
• 140 research consultations 
• 585 email inquiries handled by library staff
• 680 students provided instruction on information literacy