Skip to Main Content

VIVA: Liberty University Featured Member Library

Virginia's Academic Library Consortium

This guide has variable layouts and houses the majority of the "sub" pages for VIVA's website.

VIVA Featured Member Library: Liberty University

An interview with Angela Rice, Dean of the Library, on February 10, 2017

Liberty University, Photo by Nathan Spencer

Photo by Nathan Spencer/Liberty University

What are three points of pride in your library?

  • The Jerry Falwell Library (JFL) is proud to have a beautiful, user-centered 179,000 square foot facility which opened in January 2014. With over 30 group study rooms that include fully writable walls and projection equipment, three different levels of quiet in seven unique learning commons, an active learning classroom with collaborative technologies, and a traditional reading room, there are ample spaces to meet the diverse needs of students and faculty for both individual and collaborative study and research.  In addition to the inspirational and transformational spaces, the JFL strives to provide an exceptional experience for customers with staff and faculty who have embraced a customer service philosophy which emphasizes being welcoming, informative, fast, and impressive (WIFI). While highly-qualified and dedicated human resources are the Library’s greatest asset, the JFL is busily expanding and enhancing other resources to better meet the needs of customers. This is accomplished through the adoption a number of multi-pronged approaches which seek to develop and supplement current collections. Efficiencies such as the implementation of patron-driven acquisitions and purchase on demand programs enable the JFL to be fiscally responsible while ensuring that relevant resources are readily available.  The growth of archival and special collections, including an active digital commons, further enhances the resources available to customers while a robust InterLibrary Loan (ILL) program and membership in the Center for Research Libraries supplement the resources owned by the Library. 

What is the most popular spot in the library for users?

  • There are a number of popular spots within the Jerry Falwell Library, including a second-floor loft with booth seating that provides simultaneous views of both the main pedestrian corridor on campus and the expansive three-story atrium within the Library. The nine balconies and the green roof are also popular spots which afford customers all the benefits of being in the Library while still enjoying nature. Other popular locations include a lakeside overlook, the two-story Caudell Reading Room with its traditional library ambiance, and the Curriculum Library which provides a more playful, child-friendly space that houses the children's and young adult collections as well as teacher education resources

Which VIVA resource or service do we value the most, and why?

  • The Jerry Falwell Library values the many advantages of VIVA membership, including the Pooled Funds Program. This program enables the JFL to access a collection of article databases, index databases, subject-specific e-books, and reference titles from multiple vendors all through one expenditure. Many of these resources support some of the University’s largest programs such as Counseling (APA PsycInfo) and Business (Mergent business databases, an economics database from EBSCO, and an article database from Factiva). Additionally, the VIVA Pooled Funds collection offers access to Proquest Dissertations and Theses Full-Text for graduate scholarship, the Oxford English Dictionary and Oxford Quick Reference for broad e-book searches, and the Springer 2017 Behavioral Science collection for discipline-specific e-book content. Other valuable components of this program such as literature resources from Gale and ProQuest as well as a broad EBSCOhost article and index collection enable the Library to provide access to 24 databases with 7,460 titles not available through any of the Library's other subscriptions.