Mother Irene Gill Memorial Library was the centrally administered library of the

College of New Rochelle The College of New Rochelle (CNR) was a private Catholic college with its main campus in New Rochelle, New York, but also in Australia, England, and Germany. It was founded as the College of St. Angela by Mother Irene Gill, OSU of the Ursuline ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. It comprised the main college library and five affiliated libraries: * Co-Op City * Brooklyn * John Cardinal O'Connor in the South Bronx * Rosa Parks in Harlem * District Council 37 in TriBeca

History

The first library was located in the original library room of historic

Leland Castle Leland Castle (also known as Castle View) is a building in New Rochelle, New York. It was constructed during the years in 1855 - 1859 in the Gothic Revival style, and was the country residence of Simeon Leland, a wealthy New York City hotel prop ...

. It then expanded into a larger space on the same floor until 1923 when the library was moved into space formerly occupied by the chapel on the second floor of the 1901 wing of

. Later it moved to bigger quarters on the third floor. The 1939 new building, dedicated to CNR founder, Mother M. Irene Gill, O.S.U. had both an exhibit room and auditorium/lecture hall on the ground floor. On the second floor, a large stained glass window, the “Transmission of Knowledge,” was installed in the Main Reading Room. In addition to its role as a campus library, the Gill Library has served as an art gallery, supplementing the work of the Castle Gallery The library also promoted literature for the community by hosting a series of poetry readings. As well as classic library services such as reference, special collections and periodical access, the library has been active in developing an information literacy curriculum with for-credit classes. Due to the demographics of CNR enrollment, the library has made a special effort to meet the needs of adult learners. The library collections' strengths include a major collection of titles in the bibliotherapy of grieving. In 2013 the library worked with Google to create The Catholic Node for Research, a custom search of preferred sites for Catholic information. They also worked with Google to adapt a world map to provide a country-by-country interface to the library's catalog. In 2014, the College of New Rochelle was awarded two grants totalling 14 million dollars from the Department of Education to develop innovative ways to improve graduation rates. Much of this funding went to the Gill Library to develop Learning Commons centers in all CNR locations. Librarians at Gill have been active in professional writing with numerous articles and several books in preparation. The library created an initiative to display the scholarship of its faculty and students in 2015.

Architecture

The current library building was opened in 1939. At the time it was described as "the last word in library planning." The college hired the architectural firm of Voorhees, Walker, Foley & Smith of New York City. The builders were M. Bartnett and Sons of New Rochelle. Then, as now, a figure of Saint

Angela Merici Angela Merici or Angela de Merici ( , ; 21 March 1474 – 27 January 1540) was an Italian religious educator, who is honored as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church. She founded the Company of St. Ursula in 1535 in Brescia, in which women ded ...

is sculpted in high relief over the main entrance. This work was commissioned to Janet de Coux, one of the leading sculptors of the day. Inside, one sees this inscription from

Richard de Bury Richard de Bury (24 January 1287 – 14 April 1345), also known as Richard Aungerville or Aungervyle, was an English priest, teacher, bishop, writer, and bibliophile. He was a patron of learning and one of the first English collectors of books. ...

over the Reference Desk: "ALL THE GLORY OF THE WORLD WOULD BE BURIED IN OBLIVION, UNLESS GOD HAD PROVIDED MORTALS THE REMEDY OF BOOKS."

Special collections

As part of its collection of more than 250,000 volumes, the library contains a wealth of material from earlier times. This includes: * The Ursuline Collection * The James Joyce Collection * The Thomas More Collection * An archive of CNR history In 2014 the library partnered with the Catholic Research Resources Alliance, headquartered at

Notre Dame University The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin founded the school in 1842. The main campus ...

to add more than 500 records describing the library's Ursuline collection to the CRRA union catalog. Gill4

Digitization projects

In 2013 the Gill Library received a grant to partner with

Manhattanville College Manhattanville College is a private university in Purchase, New York. Founded in 1841 at 412 Houston Street in lower Manhattan, it was initially known as Academy of the Sacred Heart, then after 1847 as Manhattanville College of the Sacred Heart ...

for the creation of a digitized account of the history of the National Federation of Catholic College Students. Early in 2014, the library digitized the last known copy in existence of the book Spiritual exercises for postulants of the Ursuline Order at the reception of the holy habit. In the fall of 2014, the library created an online memorial to

Mary Dora Rogick Mary Dora Rogick (October 7, 1906 – October 26, 1964) was an American zoologist. In 1935 she joined the College of New Rochelle in New York, where she spent her career as a professor and researcher. She was a specialist in the taxonomy and ...

, a very distinguished biologist who taught at the

from the 1930s until her death in 1964. The memorial includes links to her scientific publications and correspondence, as well as examples of her light-hearted cartoons about campus life in New Rochelle. A number of new digitization initiatives were launched since 2014, using the state-of-the-art equipment provided by the grant. These include digitized yearbooks, as well as a master index to the names of alumnae in the yearbooks a history of the library in photographs historic postcards of the CNR campus, and a Centennial publication for the college. Late in 2014, the library published a color high-definition map of New Rochelle from 1867. In 2015, the library spearheaded an effort to highlight full text articles from faculty, staff and students in a digital repository developed by Bepress. In 2016, the library created an online site for the papers of Sister Alice Gallin, OSU, a distinguished alumna and former administrator at the College of New Rochelle.http://library.cnr.edu/screens/0gallin.html

Staff

*Ana Fontoura, Dean *Sandra Echols, Assistant Dean

References

Bibliography

* Counihan, Martha. Simeon Leland's Castle at New Rochelle. Newark, Del., 1973 * Mannino, Kathleen and Hong Ta-Moore, Journal of Interlibrary Loan, Document Delivery & Electronic Reserve (2012) Vol. 22, No. 5, "A Case for Integration of Interlibrary Loan and Reference" * Tatler (1999), Vol. 80, No. 5 p. 1, Walls, Mary, "Lightning strikes Gill Library"

External links

*
Library catalog search

Pinterest

Ion.5 Architects slideshow of 2001 renovation at Gill

College of New Rochelle Mother Irene Gill Memorial Library - Brochure from Calgi construction firm

Historic Colleges Architecture Project
{{authority control College of New Rochelle Libraries in New York (state) University and college academic libraries in the United States