Western Connecticut State University Libraries

Vision

The WCSU Libraries are dynamic learning centers that foster the discovery, creation, and reinterpretation of knowledge, in support of success, equity, diversity, social justice, and access to resources that spark creativity and intellectual enrichment. 

Mission

The faculty and staff of Western Connecticut State University Library are committed to enhancing learning and teaching by connecting researchers with information resources designed to meet the curricular, intellectual, and professional needs of the university community.

To accomplish this mission the library:

• Cultivates equitable opportunities to collaborate with, engage, and support students, faculty, administrators, and community members;
• Promotes academic success and lifelong learning through instruction in information seeking strategies and the selection, access, evaluation, and synthesis of information resources;
• Provides safe, inclusive, and accessible physical and virtual environments.

Adopted by Library Faculty April 2021

Ruth Haas Library

The Ruth A. Haas Library is the main library for Western Connecticut State University. The building is located at the center of the Midtown Campus. Constructed in 1969 and expanded in the year 2000, it occupies 90,000 square feet on six floors. During the regular semester, the Haas Library is open 82 hours per week when classes are in session.  WCSU's Archives and Special Collections Library is located in the lower level of the Haas Library.

Robert S. Young Library

The Robert S. Young Library is located on the fourth floor of the Westside Classroom Building, the location of the Ancell School of Business of Western Connecticut State University. The Library was opened in October 1982 as a memorial to Danbury businessman Robert S. Young, former President of Fairfield Processing.

Organized much like a corporate library and patterned after the Baker Library’s Core collection at the Harvard Business School, this business library supports the departments of accounting, finance, management, marketing, management information systems, and the Division of Justice and Law Administration.

Through the Library’s homepage, users have access to the Internet and the many online services to which the Library subscribes. Several very popular ones are EBSCOhost’s Business Source Premier and Academic Search Premier, ABI/Inform Complete, which index and provide full-text articles in academic, business, financial, medical, and legal journals. Checkpoint (tax research), S&P NetAdvantage, MarketLine, IBIS World, Nexis Uni, Morningstar Investment Research Center, Mergent Online, PrivCo, etc. are also available providing well-rounded and comprehensive resources for the library’s clientele. The homepage also provides links to Reference Internet Sources and a comprehensive subject guide to sources. The library subscribes to many business journals, and networking facilities can provide journal articles and books from other libraries in a timely fashion.

Throughout the year, the librarians provide bibliographic instruction and library user education classes to familiarize students and faculty with sources and to assist them in their research. Individual instruction is available upon request. The library is open to the public and librarians are happy to help.

Additionally, the Ruth A. Haas Library provides numerous sources also valuable to business, including federal government documents, education sources, and an extensive liberal arts collection. A computerized shared catalog connects both WCSU libraries with the other Connecticut State University and community college libraries providing expanded resource sharing.

About Robert S. Young

Danbury businessman Robert S. Young was an early supporter of the Ancell School of Business. He wanted the school to go beyond classes and become a forum for the discussion of business ethics, business morality and corporate social responsibility. A year after his death in 1980, his family donated funds that made the library that bears his name a reality.

Young was President of Fairfield Processing, the country’s largest producer of polyester fiber used for filling pillows, quilts and toys. The process for making the fiber, called Poly-Fil, was invented by Young’s father but it was Robert who guided the company’s phenomenal growth, turning Fairfield Processing into the country’s largest producer of the fiber. With Robert Young’s untimely death in 1980, his brother, Roy, took over the company. The family then looked for a way to honor Robert’s memory.

The library was a logical choice. At the time of his death, Robert was a member of the Corporate College Council, a group of area businesses that advises college officials on areas of need in the business community that could be served by curriculum changes at the college.