As a privately funded institution, Willamette students, faculty, and staff are the first priority of the Mark O. Hatfield Library. Because of limited materials, equipment and space, the library staff must preserve library resources for the Willamette community. The library welcomes visits from high school groups when there is a demonstrated need to use specific academic library resources and after the school library and public library resources have been exhausted. Teachers are strongly discouraged from bringing their students to the library without prior notice or sending their students in independently.
Below are the guidelines for visits to the Hatfield Library from high school groups:
- Requests to visit the library must be made to the Associate University Librarian for Collections, Teaching, and Research.
- Groups will be limited to 10-15 students; smaller groups are preferred because of space concerns and limited resources.
- A teacher or librarian from the high school must accompany students. Students should refer to the teacher or school librarian first for help using library materials.
- Student assignments for use of the library must be well defined and appropriate for an academic library. Topics to be researched should be conveyed to the library staff before the visit. Students should have done substantial work on their topics before coming to the Hatfield Library so that they can use their time here productively. The library should be considered the final resource for researching their topics rather than the first.
- Students are expected to work in a serious, academic manner.
- Library material must be used in the library only.
- The library reserves the right to prohibit visits from high school classes particularly during peak times in the academic calendar, for example, midterms and finals.
- Because of the limited number of computer workstations, students must work in groups and limit their time using the computers. Students may be restricted to using a limited number of workstations. When necessary to accomodate Willamette students of faculty, high school students may be asked to relinquish a computer. Some electronic resources may be restricted to Willamette community only.
- Students receiving community college credit for a particular class should use the community college library for their research.
