“Bates educates the whole person through creative and rigorous scholarship in a collaborative residential community.” — Mission Statement of Bates College, 2010

The Library at Bates exists to further the academic mission of the College by developing collections and offering services which focus upon the curriculum needs of undergraduate students, which further their research and scholarly needs, and which provide general knowledge for their current interests and their continuing education.

The Library provides, and expects its users to maintain, an atmosphere in which study and research can take place in a variety of comfortable environments appropriate to individual and group learning and instruction. The expert staff serves to enable easy access to information in many formats and to instruct in the use of information resources. It is the Library’s goal to foster an awareness and appreciation of the intellectual and aesthetic pleasure and value to be had in reading, research, and the gathering of information.

Where possible within its resources, and when consistent with its primary responsibilities to undergraduate students, the Library extends services to others in the Bates community, the wider geographical area, and the library profession.