About the Library

Misericordia University’s library is named to honor the late alumna Mary Kintz Bevevino, class of 1987. Completed in 1999, the new library is located at the heart of the campus between Mercy Hall and McHale and Gildae Residence Halls.

The Mary Kintz Bevevino Library encompasses 37,000 square feet and offers users a variety of study environments, including study tables, individual study carrels located throughout the building, an audio visual area, group study/tutoring rooms, and casual seating areas. The McGowan Center, on the third floor, is used for bibliographic instruction, seminars, large group presentations and community meetings. Each floor, including individual study carrels, offers Internet access; laptops are available at the circulation desk. The Library is also the home of the Sister Mary Carmel McGarigle Archives which is approximately 200 linear feet of textual records, photographs and ephemera that record the history of Misericordia University and the charisms of its founders, the Religious Sisters of Mercy.

The library provides materials and services in support of the University’s educational goals and the goals of our academic programs. The 71,546 volume book collection includes 6,827 reference books, 2,832 videocassettes, and 19,147 back files of periodicals and microforms. Special collections include 2,240 volumes of children’s literature, 420 ANA and 847 NLN nursing publications. The Bevevino Collection Development Policy provides guidelines for library acquisitions. Primary acquisitions are driven by faculty or division request; each division appropriates funds from its overall budget for library resources. Subsequent purchase recommendations come from members of the library staff and university administration.

Students and faculty have access to books, serials, and periodicals in a variety of formats (print, microform, online) and reference search tools. Resources are classified using the Dewey Classification System. Students and faculty can search for library materials (including faculty reserve materials) using SIRSI’s UNICORN public access catalog in the library or remotely. Students have access to the library’s electronic resources 24/7, on or off campus. Users can retrieve full text journal articles through the library’s electronic databases, as well as from other sources. The library’s data search lab, located in the Reference Department, has ten workstations and is staffed by a reference staff members. The Library offers access to more than thirty research databases to registered borrowers (user name and password required for remote access). OT Search, another specialized database facilitated by the department of Occupational Therapy, is available on campus with a user name and password. Other online reference tools, works and sites are listed on the library web page. Librarians and staff assist users with searching techniques and library resources. Individuals may request additional instruction by appointment. The library schedules tours and group tutorials on specific databases or general bibliographic instruction when requested. In addition to its in-house collection, the library has access to approximately 1.5 million volumes through its membership in the Northeast Pennsylvania Library Network (NPLN). Member institutions of this consortium of academic, public, special, and medical libraries share resources through a searchable online catalog, accessible from our library’s home page. As an affiliate of PALINET, Misericordia University subscribes to the Cataloging and Interlibrary Loan subsystems of OCLC. This provides us an electronic means to search, borrow and lend materials with other libraries.

The library’s schedule accommodates the academic schedule of the University. It is open approximately 90 hours per week and four additional hours when support is needed for our weekend college courses. The library extends borrowing privileges to students of other area colleges, to Back Mountain residents, to university guests and other members of the local community. Interested persons should contact the Circulation Desk for more information.