Staying at the heart of the institution

Libraries at small colleges, especially colleges with a nontraditional student population, face an uphill struggle to remain relevant in the life of the institution. Students at colleges like these tend to be adults who are already in the workforce and have many responsibilities and demands on their time outside of school. These students will usually either come to campus for their classes and leave or take online classes and rarely set foot on campus. The Hoffman Family Library at Goodwin College in East Hartford CT has faced many of these issues. Goodwin College is a small, private, nonprofit, career-focused institution that caters primarily to students from disadvantaged backgrounds. The student body is 80% female and roughly half are people of color. The average age of a Goodwin student is 29, most students are part-time, and nearly all do not live on campus. The college's full-time equivalent varies from semester to semester but is usually in the neighborhood of 3,500.