The St. John’s University Library has many new institutions and initiatives in store for this academic year, including the introduction of its  newest employee, Lusiella Fazzino.

Fazzino is the new assistant professor and eScholar repository librarian. In her position, Fazzino will be tasked with creating  St. John’s digital repository. The goal of this is to feature more research, articles and dissertations from both faculty and staff.  

According to Fazzino, the website used to access the digital repository is scholar.stjohns.edu. On this website, students and administrators can search any item in the repository, look at the most recent additions, see the paper of the day and several other functions.

The website says that “research and scholarly output included here has been selected and deposited by the individual university departments and centers on campus.”

One of the journals Fazzino has most recently worked on uploading to the website is the Journal of Archaeology. She says that she still has a long way to go in terms of journals and dispositions to upload, but is excited to continue her work.

As of September, the website has 51 papers, 4,005 full-text downloads and 3,065 downloads in the past year. This repository will aim to raise the national academic profile of St. John’s.  

The library is also launching three new apps for St. John’s students this year, which will allow students to look up services and hours, find and self-check books and perform research. An official date for the launch of these apps is still to be determined.

Fazzino earned her MA at Goddard College in Vermont and her JD from Suffolk University Law School. Fazzino began her work at St. John’s in July and has enjoyed her experience thus far.

“I really enjoy the campus and the community feel of St. John’s,” Fazzino said., “Everyone is very supportive and helpful. The students are very engaged, there’s a lot of activities like campus ministry, and I really enjoy my time.”