This document is intended as a guide for faculty and Library staff who select resources for the Library. It also provides information about the Library’s practices for administration, governing boards, accrediting agencies, and other interested parties. This document will help the Library to maintain a balance, tailored to meet the needs of the Library’s user community, between ownership of information resources and access to resources owned by others.

The primary mission of the Library is to provide the members of the academic community at Sewanee with access to resources that support current and anticipated instructional, research, and service programs of the University. The Library’s mission also includes instruction in and promotion of effective ways to use these resources. In more limited ways, the Library makes its resources available to the surrounding community, to visiting scholars, and to other libraries. The Library is also a Federal Government Depository.