After 15 years of dedicated service as Director of Mahoney Library, Brother Paul Chervenie has retired. During his tenure, the library has progressed in many important ways, particularly in the utilization of digital technologies. Prior to his time as director, the library had only minimal access to databases, the catalog consisted of thousands of individual cards that had to be thumbed through, and the internet was still an untapped resource.
The Mahoney Library of today provides access to over one hundred databases, and full text access to over 29,000 journals, in addition to a substantial collection of electronic encyclopedias and other reference sources. Additionally, our catalog is fully automated and shared with the libraries of FDU, providing our patrons with borrowing privileges to those libraries as well. For this we owe Brother Paul our deepest gratitude. He came to us at a key moment in the history of the library and successfully guided us through the coming of the digital age.
Replacing Brother Paul as Director of the Library is Ms. Amira Unver, moving from her former position as Mahoney Library’s Head of User Services, where she has served for the past 9 years. “I hope to build on the solid foundation that Brother Paul has left us” she said, “and try to more fully engage both the faculty and the students to make better use of the many resources we can now make available.”
To this end the library now offers a thoroughly redesigned website, with many new guides and resources, including ‘Mahoney Online,’ an email reference service. Amira is also encouraging the library staff to participate in the EOF mentoring program. This will match members of the library staff to new students enrolling in the college to help them get started in their academic endeavors. In this way the library can be more fully engaged with the academic life of the college and take greater advantage of the skills and experience that its staff has to offer. This indeed is the direction in which our new director wishes to take us, and we all look forward to the continued growth and development of the library that is sure to come.