Service Learning & Community Engagement

The library contributes through a number of support, outreach, community engagement, and service learning projects.

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Barbara A. Holland Collection for Service Learning and Community Engagement

A uniquely retrospective and comprehensive resource, the Barbara A. Holland Collection for Service Learning and Community Engagement offers the world's largest physical collection in the field. This internationally important collection also features digital derivatives of materials originally collected by the National Service Learning Clearinghouse including engagement research in higher education, K-12 schools, the community-based organization sector and Tribal Nations. The digital collection is available through DigitalComons@UNO and visitors can use the physical collection on the main level/second floor of Criss Library across from the service desk.

3D Printing for Healthcare and Workforce Development

Thanks to the Weitz Innovation and Excellence Fund, the UNO Biomechanics Additive Manufacturing Lab and Criss Library Creative Production Lab (CPL) have partnered to offer a month-long summer internship program focused on 3D printing. The program prioritizes students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and individuals with orthopedic needs, ensuring accessible STEM education. Students gain practical skills in biomechanics, prosthetic design, and advanced manufacturing, preparing them for careers in healthcare, rehabilitation, and engineering. Since 2025, this program has expanded to include work alongside Autism Action Partnership, Innovative Prosthetics & Orthotics, UNMC, and Children’s Hospital. Criss Library CPL staff support this program through instructional design, active instruction, and access to industry-grade 3D printers for the development of student prototypes.

Fontenelle Forest

In partnership with Fontenelle Forest, day passes are available to UNO students, faculty, and staff at no cost.

Great Plains Black History Museum

Since 1976, the Great Plains Black History Museum has been an important institution dedicated to publicizing and preserving the achievements of the region’s vibrant African American heritage. The archivists from Criss Library’s Archives and Special Collections have partnered with the Museum to arrange and describe its archival collection for a 2024-2026 grant project. Along with processing the archival collection, the community has also been invited to webinars, workshops, and open houses co-hosted by the partners. Access to the Museum’s archival collection is temporarily available in Criss Library. Previous collaborations included a pilot digitization project and assisting with move preparations.

Loan Privileges

Criss Library offers borrowing privileges to high school students, other colleges’ and universities’ students and employees, and community members. Community members who qualify for a library card include Friends of the Library, active duty service members and DOD civilians stationed at Offutt Air Force Base, Senior Passport students, and community partners affiliated with the UNO campus.

Omaha Game Developers Association & Community Game Jams

The Omaha Game Developers Association (OGDA) offers monthly networking meetups and events dedicated to the growth of professional game design in Nebraska. Our partnership started in 2018 as a cooperative effort for student accessible “Game Jams”- rapid prototyping events run by the CPL. Since 2022, we have hosted OGDA meetups in instruction labs.

CPL and OGDA Game Jams are open to UNO students and community members interested in game development at all skill levels. Since 2018, Spoopy Jam, Insert Game [Here], Ostara, and Global Game Jam have been attended by over 700 participants, and resulted in the creation of over 250 new games at UNO.

Silent Book Club of Omaha

Silent Book Club of Omaha is a community for readers who come together to celebrate their common enjoyment of reading. Special silent reading events have been held in Criss Library twice each year - for Banned Books Week in September and National Library Week in April.

Traveling Exhibits from Archives and Special Collections

Archivists from Criss Library’s Archives and Special Collections have curated traveling exhibits for loan to libraries, museums, colleges, and other institutions in the region. Collaborations with community partners have also included research and public programs. "Charting Our Path: Celebrating 50 Years of Black Studies” and “Pride and Joy: Nebraska History” are available for exhibit loan at no charge to the hosting institutions.

Past Projects

Girl's Inc. of Omaha

Girls, Inc. is a national, non-profit organization dedicated to inspiring girls and serving in high-risk, underserved areas. Girls, Inc. of Omaha has two locations in the Omaha area serving girls from ages five to 18 with educational and recreational programs that address math and science education, pregnancy, drug abuse and violence prevention, and many other issues that confront young people today.

The two Girls, Inc. locations each contained a room of books available for the girls to use and read. As a community engagement project, the librarians at UNO's Criss Library worked with the Girls, Inc. Director of Programs and UNO’s Department of Teacher’s Education, Library Science faculty to organize and develop projects to create a working and sustainable library at both locations. Our goal was to have a library with books that were easy to find, available to check out, and could be read by any girl in the organization.

The UNO/UMC (University of Missouri - Columbia) Library Science Department incorporated the work that needed to be accomplished at Girls, Inc. into Library Science classes on topics such as: library management to work on the floor layout and organization of shelving, books and computers; the cataloging class to catalog and label the books; and the collection class worked on building a collection relevant for the patron audience.

Sibling Institution UNAN, Leon, Nicaragua

In the summer of 2008, The Criss Library initiated a unique opportunity to extend electronic library services to the faculty researchers/UNO adjunct faculty from the Department of English at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Nicaragua (UNAN/León).