Murphy Library News

Greetings, 

This fall, Murphy Library was excited to welcome both our returning students as well as a record breaking number of first-year students back to campus! Murphy Library is one of the main places to be on campus, and we are all happiest when we see lots of students spending time here.  

While it’s been great to have everyone back in the library, in many ways, fall 2021 has been more challenging than ever. We are still in the midst of a global pandemic that has lasted over 20 months, and budget challenges remain ever-present. However, library personnel have worked tirelessly throughout the pandemic to maintain our high quality services and resources, and Murphy Library is very fortunate to have the support of student funding (AIDAC) to help provide additional scholarly resources and extra hours of operation. 

Personnel-wise, we were glad to hire our new Library Assistant, Jonathan Majak, who works in our cataloging and administrative units. You can read more about him in this issue of The Fine Print. I also wish to thank the many library faculty and staff who are taking on the extremely critical roles and responsibilities in the cataloging and discovery unit while we work to fill the vacant Cataloging and Discovery Librarian position. 

A record breaking rainfall event in August resulted in widespread flooding across campus and unfortunately in all areas of the library’s basement. We are happy to report that none of the many thousands of government documents, bound journals, maps and other items housed in the basement received water damage thanks to efforts by UWL’s talented team from Facilities Management and Maintenance who were on hand to mitigate damage and move our collections out of harm's way. Repairs to the library’s stormwater system are underway, and we appreciate patience until we can reopen these spaces...hopefully in a vastly improved manner. 

A massive amount of appreciation goes out from everyone in Murphy Library to all the donors who made the library’s inaugural crowdfunding event such an amazing success. The initial goal was to raise $8,500 to refresh study spaces, and we can report that this goal was smashed as we managed to raise over $10,000! Read more about the project here. 

Please let me or any of the Murphy Library personnel know if you have suggestions for improving our spaces and services! We look forward to helping you this semester and beyond and are always eager to hear from you! 

Very sincerely, 

John Jax  

Murphy Library Director