Visiting High School Groups
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 Public Services
and Collection Development.
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.
