II. Mission
A. Statement of Purpose
The purpose of the Shaw Historical Library is to contribute to a deepened appreciation for the “Land of Lakes” area and its people. The Land of Lakes is generally defined as the geographical area of south-central and southeastern Oregon, northeastern California and northwestern Nevada (See Appendix 1).
Laurence Shaw stated that the purpose of “establishing the library and reading room in Klamath County” was to “provide students and residents of the community, as well as other interested persons access to a central depository for historical and scientific books, works of art, and other library material relating to the history of this general geographic area.”
The SHL achieves this purpose by making its growing collections available to the Oregon Tech and Klamath Falls communities, as well as scholars, researchers, and the general public from other geographic areas.
B. Objectives
The objectives of the Shaw Historical Library are as follows:
- To appraise, collect, organize, describe, preserve and make available documents of historical and cultural value to the region known as the Land of Lakes;
- To provide a secure and archivally-sound environment for the preservation of materials in various formats;
- To provide information services and research assistance in a secure and comfortable environment to scholars and researchers from Oregon Tech, as well as from local, regional, and nationwide communities;
- To serve as a resource to stimulate creative teaching and learning.