Carry your OneCard when visiting the Library

The Melly Academic Center—including the Library, the Center for Teaching and Learning, the Digital Learning Center and the IT Help Desk—will begin locking exterior doors when staff are not present. You can still access the building by swiping your Hobart and William Smith OneCard at the reader next to each door.

An official start date will be announced soon.

This academic year, HWS welcomes Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah as the Trias Writer-In-Residence.

While we have him on campus, there's never a better time to take the opportunity to read some of Adjei-Brenyah's work. 

The library has copies of Friday Black, a book of short stories, and Chain-Gang All-Stars, Adjei-Brenyah's first novel, in the collection. You can also read Chain-Gang All-Stars as an eBook— it's available on the Libby app!

You can also read Adjei-Brenyah's short story, King of the Hill, published in Ploughshares. 

If you’ve ever checked out a book or scheduled a research appointment, you might already be familiar with Catherine, an Access Services Specialist.

About her position, Catherine says, “That’s a fancy way of saying I work at the circulation desk, where we check books out, process course reserves and provide Interlibrary Loan services. I also moonlight on the research and consultation desk and (a peek behind the curtain) I put together the monthly newsletter.”

Catherine’s been with the Warren Hunting Smith Library for three years but has spent most of her adult life working in libraries. “Despite the stereotype that libraries are silent places where the employees just shush people and read all day,” Catherine says her favorite part of working at a library has always been the people. “I love being able to answer a burning question or send someone away with the exact right book or article that will help (or even just entertain) them. This job would be so boring if there were no patrons to serve!” If you needed a sign to ask the library staff for help, this is your cue!

As a Geneva transplant (Catherine moved here in 2017), what struck her about the HWS community is how deeply engrained its community members are in the Geneva community, too: “I worked at the public library for years before coming to HWS, and when I joined the staff here, I recognized staff and faculty who used to bring their children to the public library on Saturday mornings, and I run into people everywhere, from the Wegmans checkout line to my niece’s middle school chorus concert.”

And now, for the question we always ask at the end of these staff profiles: What’s your favorite book? “My cliché answer is Pride and Prejudice, but I have more!” A fiction pick: Sourdough by Robin Sloan, “a weird contemporary fiction that’s a little bit like sci-fi without all the technical stuff.” One nonfiction: The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert— “I haven’t stopped talking about this book all year, a look at the past five mass extinctions on earth and whether humans are causing the sixth.” Catherine adds,  “I’m a big romance fan, which I know is an acquired taste but if you’re in the market for some kissing, I'll leave you with two recommendations: The Intimacy Experiment by Rosie Danan and A Love Song for Ricki Wilde by Tia Williams.”

Over the summer, Susan Mott MacLeod donated her father's collection of Hobart College materials.

John Mott '42 studied history, participated in the Glee and French Clubs, and was President of the International Relations Club. After Hobart, John served in the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II and retired from the Air Force Reserves as a lieutenant colonel. He later worked as an attorney.

The collection is currently being processed by Archives intern Edie Johnson '26 and selections will be on display later this semester. 

Follow us on Instagram for daily historic images of campus: @hwsarchives

The Library is celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month, in collaboration with Fernando Rodríguez Mansilla, Chair and Professor of Spanish, Latin American and Bilingual Studies.

Hispanic Heritage Month is observed from September 15 through October 15 and this display will remain on the second floor of the Library from September 29 through November 2— plenty of time for you to come check it out!

There will be a number of books highlighting Hispanic authors, artists and stories, and we're highlighting a few for you below.

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