Copley Library Annual Report 2022-2023

In the Library

Favorite Study Destinations Ask about a favorite spot to any USD students that regularly use Copley Library for studying, research, and/or collaboration and you may get a different answer from each student. With over 35,000 study room reservations between July 1, 2022 and June 30, 2023, the library knows that these spaces are prized by students. Other students enjoy the informality of the booths on Copley’s ground floor or the sunny conditions in the Journals Reading Room on the upper level. Some students prefer the traditional look and silent study available in Copley’s beloved Mother Hill Reading Room. Students seeking solitude have discovered

discreet study spaces in the Camino stacks, surrounded by rows of book stacks. Still others flock to the Copley Lounge on the ground floor with its comfortable seating and fewer restrictions on noise levels. Finally, the beauty and table spaces in the Roy and Marian Holleman Quiet Study Room draw regular student appreciation of its niche location in Camino beyond the Mother Hill Reading Room. We hope that all USD students will make Copley spaces a destination and find a favorite spot of their own in the library.

Library Exhibits (Summer 2022-Summer 2023) Diane Maher, Copley Library’s Head of Archives, Special Collections, and Digital Initiatives, curates the library exhibits in the new display cases along the hallway to the Mother Hill Reading Room. Exhibits in these cases frequently represent the events hosted or celebrated by Copley Library as well as the library’s significant scholarly resources.

Comic Arts Exhibit (Summer 2022–Fall 2022) An exhibit created to support Copley Library’s Comic Studies and Practices Symposium in Summer 2022, the hallway cases featured graphic novels held in the library’s Special Collections as well as books on comic arts from the library’s general

collection. The exhibit highlighted the use of graphic novels in the classroom, a focus of the symposium; provided a historical view of the development of this genre beginning with satirical political publications of the 18th century; and provided an overview of its predominant subgenres: Comics, Graphic Novels, and Manga.

Black History Month/Women’s History Month Exhibit (February–March 2023) This year’s exhibit explored the works of Alice Walker, Zora Neale Hurston, Maria W. Stewart, and the subject of Womanist Theology. The exhibit also featured essayist and theologian Candice Marie Benbow’s book Red Lip Theology , which served as the showcase title for the 2023 Copley Library and San Diego Public Library joint Black History Month / Women’s History Month program.

4 | HELEN K. AND JAMES S. COPLEY LIBRARY