Parents Association Collection Endowment

In 1993, the NC State Parents Association chose to support the NCSU Libraries by founding a library collections endowment with its gift for the year. The Parents Association Collections Endowment provides income for the development of the collections of the NCSU Libraries in all formats and primarily to support the undergraduate program.

The gift was an important milestone during a period of severe budget cutbacks. High costs and the disproportional inflation of book and journal prices meant that many newly published books that should have been added to the collection could not be purchased. The NCSU Libraries' inability to maintain a strong collections growth rate had a significant negative impact in its Association of Research Libraries (ARL) ranking, which dropped in 1990-1991 to 101 out of 107 libraries, from 88 out of 107 the year before.

The ranking of 101 was the NCSU Libraries' low point. The Parents Association's gift was one of the factors leading to a dramatic improvement in the library's ARL ranking. It currently stands at 27 (2003-04 rank).

For more information on how NC State parents can support the Libraries, please contact:

Jim Ruth
Director, Friends of the Library and Annual Giving
NCSU Libraries
(919) 515-7033