The mission of the Blissell Library is to advance the instructional goals of Penn State New Kensington by introducing students to the world of information and teaching them how to navigate through it effectively. Information literacy, or the ability to find appropriate information and evaluate it, is a crucial life skill that will enable students not just to complete assignments but to become lifelong learners.
Toward this end the library will maintain a collection of materials that support the teaching curriculum of the New Kensington campus. Faculty involvement in the selection of materials is of critical importance to the attainment of this goal.
The primary emphasis of our mission is on teaching. The small physical size of our library, the small size of our student body, and the fact that the majority of our students are in their first or second year of college, combine to create a unique opportunity for us to orient our students to information seeking in the following ways:
We achieve this orientation in two ways: through instruction of specific classes and in one-on-one instruction.
Partnering with faculty is essential to this teaching effort.
