Company Profile
Case Western Reserve University, Kelvin Smith Library
Company Overview
The Kelvin Smith Library (KSL) is the knowledge and creativity commons of Case Western Reserve University, with a vision is to be the information laboratory for knowledge collection, connection, creation, and curation. KSL has been the coordinator and host for recent national conferences concerning special collections, digital scholarship, and personal librarian/first year experience programs. KSL will again be the host in 2016 for the second personal librarian conference, and in 2017 for the Academic Library Advancement Network (ALADN) Conference.The Freedman Center for Digital Scholarship recently underwent a complete new concept and physical design, and now has one of the leading facilities of its kind in the country. Digital Case (the institutional repository) was one of the first of its kind in the country and is built upon a Fedora Hydra platform. Case Western Reserve University is a member of the Association of Research Libraries, was a charter member of OhioLINK, one of the leading library consortia in the world. The University is also a Carnegie R1 institution that is a member of the highly selective Association of American Universities.
Company History
Western Reserve College was founded in 1826, and from its earliest days it stood out as one of only a few institutions that sought innovation and embraced the sciences. By 1887, the college had begun hiring forward-thinking scientists, including Edward E. Morley, best known for his collaboration with fellow professor Albert Michelson on the Michelson-Morley Experiment, which inspired Albert Einstein's work in relativity. As the 20th century neared, the city of Cleveland, Ohio, was on the rise. A post-war economy vaulted Cleveland to the forefront of American cities with unprecedented population and financial growth. And it was hungry for a university. With funding from American industrialist Amasa Stone, the college moved in 1882 to "uptown" Cleveland, where it lives today, and assumed the name Western Reserve University. In 1877, Leonard Case Jr., a philanthropic citizen of Cleveland and early benefactor of the engineering school, began laying the groundwork for the Case School of Applied Science. He initiated a secret trust to endow a polytechnic school in Cleveland. This school would train men in engineering and applied science, enabling them to build on a young, growing nation's vast resources. Within four months of his death in 1880, the trust was administered and the Case School of Applied Science was born. Over the years, the university developed strong liberal arts and professional programs, while the institute, which adopted the name Case Institute of Technology, became a top school of science and engineering. The two institutions agreed their 1967 federation would create a complete university worthy of national distinction. Case Western Reserve University immediately became a leading institution for academics and research, as well as one the nation's top-ranked universities.
Benefits
Case Western Reserve University provides highly competitive benefits. A chief benefit of the University is its location in the beautiful University Circle of Cleveland, a city that is undergoing a rapid and remarkable renaissance. The world-reknowned Cleveland Orchestra and the Cleveland Museum of Art are both within steps of the Kelvin Smith Library, as are the Cleveland Botanical Garden, the Western Reserve Historical Society, and the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. Cleveland has a very active theater scene, with the Cleveland Playhouse (the oldest regional theater company in the country), and Playhouse Square in downtown Cleveland, which provides the largest number of theaters in the country outside of New York. Add to this the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Cleveland Science Center, a new Children's Museum under development, a large number of great restaurants, and the extensive Cleveland Metroparks and the nearby Cuyahoga National Park, and Cleveland has much to offer.