NCSU Libraries Focus Online
Volume 27 number 2 - Winter 2007
Library Development: Libraries' Campaign Nears the Home Stretch
By Jim Mulvey, Library Development
With just a year and a half left in NC State’s historic
fund-raising campaign--Achieve! The Campaign for NC State--the
NCSU Libraries' own "Carousel of Knowledge" campaign
total is nearly $8.2 million of a $10 million goal. The Libraries
is grateful to those who have helped it reach this milestone and
hope others will join in supporting the NCSU Libraries’ service
to students and faculty.
The campaign insert in the last issue of Focus highlighted
the important role endowments play in providing perpetual income.
It is gratifying that this issue announces the establishment of
the James E. and Jane Brown Endowment, created
by class of 1939 alumnus "Doc Brown" (see Article 8:
Seven Days a Week and a County Vet's Practice, Doc Brown Endowment
Profile), and highlights endowments created by NCSU faculty and
librarians (see Article 9: An Accomplished Group of Faculty Friends).
Many of the endowments established to date are crucial to building
outstanding collections, and faculty and students have emphasized
that strong research collections are a top priority--integral to
the success of the university's research, teaching, and extension
and engagement mission. As the article on plant genetics and genomics
attests (see Article 5: Genetics and Plant Genomics: Building Unique
Collections for the Twenty-first Century), in-kind gifts in targeted
subject areas are invaluable, too, in building research collections.
Endowments can also ensure sustained programs in areas not typically
supported by state funds but which nonetheless enrich students'
learning experience. The Libraries launched an exhibit program
in 2003 with the acclaimed Pulitzer Prize photographs. The completion
of the D. H. Hill Library East Wing renovations will provide museum-quality
exhibition space, and the Libraries seeks endowment support to
ensure consistent high-quality content and presentation. The campaign
insert in this issue of Focus highlights how meaningful these exhibits
can be for students.
Finally, the Libraries strives to provide the type of learning
spaces students seek for both group work and solitary study. Improving
and expanding space is another key campaign goal, and the East
Wing renovations are transforming the first floor into an attractive,
technology-enriched Learning Commons with a wide variety of flexible
seating options. Donor support has helped make this space and that
of the adjacent new reading room more functional and attractive.
As much as students will welcome the East Wing improvements, it
is critical that the Libraries provides more of these types of
learning spaces. Thus, future gifts to name spaces or furniture
in the East Wing will continue to improve the D. H. Hill Library
and inform planning for the library on Centennial Campus.
For more information about the Libraries' "Carousel of Knowledge" campaign,
please visit the Web at www.lib.ncsu.edu/support/capital;
or call Director of Library Development Jim Mulvey at
(919) 515-3339 or send an electronic-mail message to jim_mulvey@ncsu.edu.
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