Sitting at her desk on the first floor of Mahoney Library at the College of Saint Elizabeth (CSE) in Morristown, N.J., Amira Unver, who became the College’s recently appointed library director, seems relaxed in her first month on the new job.

 

 CSE welcomes recently appointed Mahoney Library Director, Amira Unver (Photo by Courtney Smolen)

 

Formerly Head of User Services at the College’s library for the last decade, Ms. Unver succeeds Brother Paul Chervenie, director since 1992, who shepherded the library through the coming of the digital age. 

 

“I hope to build on the solid foundation that Brother Paul has left for us,” Ms. Unver 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.”

 

As with her immediate predecessor, Ms. Unver realizes that the role of the library is changing as rapidly as the technology that drives those changes.

 

“Technology offers access in ways we can never imagine,” explains Ms. Unver. “Part of the challenge is staying tuned into what people are seeking and offering a high quality of material.”

 

To this end the library has completely redesigned its homepage by adding many new guides and resources, including Mahoney Online, a portal for online reference; now students, in need of help, can email their questions to a reference librarian and expect a reply within two working days. 

 

Furthermore, Ms. Unver encourages students to visit the library and see for themselves, what it has to offer. “I want the library to be the center of humanity here at the College,” explains Ms. Unver. “The one place that students can go to stretch their minds and to be challenged.”

 

One of the ways in which Ms. Unver is reaching out to students is by encouraging the library staff to be mentors to new students enrolling in the College. Each staff member will take on one or two students in helping them get started in the 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 the library staff has to offer,” Ms. Unver said.

 

Prior to 1990, 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. Today, the library provides users with access to more than one hundred databases, and full text access to more than 29,000 journals, in addition to a substantial collection of electronic encyclopedias and other reference resources. Additionally, the library’s catalog is fully automated and shared with the libraries at Farleigh Dickinson University, providing patrons with borrowing privileges to those libraries as well.

 

Amira Unver in action!

 

More: Ms. Unver is a fencing aficionado. Ms. Unver will be teaching fencing, Wednesdays at 5 p.m. this semester. Fencing classes will be held at CSE Saint Joseph Hall Gymnasium; but be engarde, those who visit will be asked to participate!