Workshops Highlight Library Resources

The You Belong in the Library program is a grant-funded initiative by the college to bring students, particularly first-generation students, into the library early in their college careers to learn what the library offers.

Susan Wiegand, scholarly communications librarian, has developed the program at Saint Mary’s. “The goal of the You Belong in the Library program is to build innovative library practices that increase a sense of belonging for First Gen students,” she said. “Through diverse artwork, enticing technology—the Research with Robots workshops, for example—and the opportunity to build community by sharing stories in the Academic Repository, students learn the library is full of additional opportunities, all while learning research skills and career competencies.”

As a librarian and a faculty member, Wiegand understands how “library anxiety” impacts students. “Research shows that first-gen students especially may find the library intimidating or uninviting and not visit the library as early or as often as needed to optimize their academic success.” She sees student peer mentors like Sincere Cannon ’25 and Angelina Wright ’25 as crucial support. Both students work to raise awareness of the library’s opportunities among their peers.

According to Wiegand, You Belong in the Library will take students beyond being savvy consumers of research, as libraries have always done, and introduce them to the idea of being student scholars who create undergraduate research and scholarship. It will contribute to the scholarly record through the curated and still-in-development Academic Repository at Saint Mary's College, along with other academic institutions in Indiana and beyond.

“I believe this is the future of libraries,” Wiegand said. At Saint Mary’s, she points to the expanded rare and special book collections and their housing within the library designed to provide students and scholars better access to them, in person and online. New acquisitions like the Dante Collection are now digitized in the Academic Repository, while a new gift of rare volumes of the works of Charles Dickens are now available. “It all ties together, ultimately elevating the research capacity of our students and the reputation of the Cushwa-Leighton Library,” Wiegand said. 

In other ways, Wiegand is also helping to raise the profile of library resources. Workshops that introduce the Library’s databases and the Academic Repository, as well as a planned Library Research Award offered later in the year, can benefit students. The Library’s new “Research with Robots” workshops take place on Wednesday afternoons, and the therapy dogs program is a traditional end-of-semester reprieve for students during finals. 

Wiegand, who earned her Master of Library Science (MLS) degree in library and information science, with a special interest in human-computer interaction, has plans that extend beyond workshops. “Eventually, I hope to build the program into a micro-credential, independent study, information minor, and/or a bachelor's degree in Information, or a pathway to grad school.”

More information about the Cushwa-Leighton Library and its offerings can be found here.