A Message from the Director

As the premier public university in the Northeast, Binghamton demands a learner-centered library system with a variety of customizable, state-of-the-art approaches to information discovery and delivery.

Thomas ‘Tip’ O’Neill, longtime Speaker of the House in the U.S. Congress, reportedly said, “All politics is local.” Believing the same can be said about librarianship, our library faculty and staff partner with a variety of for-profit and not-for-profit organizations engaged in applied research to produce an array of niche services, including an a la carte menu of discovery tools allowing adaptive customization by the Binghamton University community.

At Binghamton University Libraries, we believe only empowered individuals and collaborative teams working within an organizational culture of creativity and experimentation can provide these value-added services successfully. Our approach is grounded in the organizational philosophy of Margaret J. Wheatley and guided by Chris Anderson’s notion of the Bell Curve’s “Long Tail” of specialized interests among our community of users. One size does not fit all! We segment both our physical and virtual libraries to meet an array of student information needs according to their learning styles, majors and generational expectations. Supplemental funds to enable such customized services comes from the generous contributions of our supporters. To ensure that future students receive similar state-of-the-art services, we are seeking to increase the size of our library endowments, whose annual interest payments enable us to remain flexible in applying resources where they are needed most. To facilitate this mission, we offer naming opportunities for two branch libraries, as well as numerous study rooms, walkways, information commons and collections. Please join us by investing in library innovation.

John M. Meador Jr., Director of University Libraries