NCSU Libraries Focus Online

Volume 28 number 3 - Spring 2008

Honor with Books--What Better Way?

By Anna Dahlstein, External Relations

From the mystery that cannot be put down to the seminal work in rural sociology that inspired you to become an extension agent, books influence lives in powerful ways. They connect us to the parents who read bedtime stories, the friends who recommend the best page-turners, and the teachers who made the classrooms buzz with excitement.

The Honor with Books program invites you to pay tribute to that special person by placing a bookplate in his or her honor in a newly purchased book in the genre or subject of your choosing. Letters of acknowledgment and copies of the bookplate will be sent to you and the honoree or their family. In addition, your gesture will be recognized in the Libraries' honor roll and in the library catalog. This $100 gift also supports a critical acquisitions need. Meanwhile, the person honored will be remembered for years to come--every time somebody opens the book distinguished by the bookplate.

You may select among four options for the design of the bookplate (featuring the university seal, a vintage Wolfpack wolf, the Belltower, or the D. H. Hill Library) and indicate, for instance, "Gift of . . . In Celebration of . . . ," "Gift of . . . In Memory of . . . ," or a specific occasion such as a graduation or an anniversary. A librarian can help with the selection of a special title in any area of need, or donors may designate one of the following categories:

Agriculture

Business and Management

Design

Education

Engineering

Environmental Science

Fiction

Humanities

Life Science

Literature

Natural Resources

Nonfiction

Textiles

Veterinary Medicine

For a gift of $100, one book will be plated with your chosen inscription. For a gift of $500, six books will be plated with your chosen inscription. Or, for a limited time, the Friends of the Library is offering matching contributions for gifts of $500 for donors who would instead like to establish an incubator fund in support of collections. A gift of $1,000 establishes a named, permanent fund called an incubator that can be built into an endowment over the course of many years.

A gift of $15,000 establishes a full endowment--one that generates enough interest income from its principal to support ongoing acquisitions in perpetuity in a collections area chosen by the donor. The materials purchased with full endowment funds are marked with personalized bookplates featuring the endowment's name and any photograph or image selected by the donor.

Giving through the Honor with Books program and other endowments provides a meaningful way to remember someone while making an important contribution to learning and scholarship at NC State. To learn more or to make a gift, please contact the Friends of the Library by calling (919) 515-2841, sending an electronic-mail message to friends_of_the_library@ncsu.edu, visiting the Web site www.lib.ncsu.edu/honorwithbooks, or returning the enclosed envelope with your details.