Have you made your donation to the University's Campaign for the Rising Generation yet? Or, having given already, would you like to make an additional gift? You may wish to consider a gift to the Library now, since the University Library is one of five priorities scheduled to benefit from the recently initiated "Challenge to the Finish."
As most of you know, during Commencement 1995 President Gregorian announced that the University had exceeded its $450 million campaign goal seven months early, an achievement in which we all can take pride. Not all of the campaign priorities, however, achieved their goals: the libraries (including the John Carter Brown Library) raised $16 million against a goal of $25 million, with approximately $10 million of that amount specifically for the University Library. While some of our high priority needs were met - such as a gift to support the implementation of a new, integrated online information system - others, such as endowment for the collections, "the library of the future," and the preservation program, were less successful. The "Challenge to the Finish" gives us another opportunity to make significant progress toward our goals, and to benefit Brown students and faculty by equipping the Library to meet the complex scholarly information needs of the late- twentieth-century university.
To get the Challenge off the ground, a group of committed alumni and parents have donated funds totaling nearly $20 million. A $2 dollar gift to one of the Challenge priorities, such as the Library, releases an additional $1 from Challenge funds, and the entire amount is added to the Campaign total. At the end of the Campaign, Challenge funds remaining will be directed at the President's discretion to the priorities where the need is greatest - a real "win-win" situation.
In the closing months of the Campaign, the Library is seeking funds to increase acquisitions endowment, as well as current restricted funds which can be used on a one-time basis to add materials to the collection and to support information access for faculty and students. Over the last decade, the Library's acquisitions funds have been hard- hit by the "triple whammy" of inflation in materials prices, persistent dollar devaluation abroad, and the need to divert funds to new information formats, such as online databases. If we are to maintain our strong traditional collections and keep up with today's varied information needs, the Library must increase the funds available to it for acquisitions -hence this crucial Campaign goal. With additional acquisitions funds and gifts in kind, the Library hopes to celebrate the addition of its three millionth volume sometime during 1996/97.
We also seek endowment to support "the library of the future," that is, the technical infrastructure which is needed to deal with the wide variety of current information formats. Many types of online data are unavailable to the user who does not have the correct equipment; if the Library is to step in and provide access to electronic data in print, graphic, and sound form, we must have a reliable source of funds to acquire, maintain, and upgrade equipment, and to expand information sources like the Electronic Reference Library.
Our third major Campaign goal is to raise endowment and current support for our preservation program, which seeks to protect and preserve the many precious items in Brown's own collection. Approximately 500,000 books in Brown's library are deteriorating and in need of reformatting to preserve their content; others need conservation as unique artifacts. The Preservation Department is also working with colleagues in other Library areas to begin digitizing materials from the Special Collections, simultaneously preserving their content and making them more widely available via the Internet. [For a fuller description of this technology, see page 5. ED .] Thus far, the Library has supported its preservation endeavors by grants and by reallocating resources within the existing budget; if Preservation is to make real, positive inroads on the existing problems, it requires funding which is both dedicated and adequate to the need.
To manage the Library's fundraising for the Challenge to the Finish, the Development Office has created "Team Library," consisting of staff from all Development divisions. Team Library members will work with library staff to gain a broad knowledge of library goals and priorities; will develop strategies for identifying and approaching prospects for fundraising; will assist librarians in the creation of grant proposals to corporations and foundations; and, when necessary, will act as intermediaries between the Library and potential donors who may request information about library needs. Members of Team Library have already made a half-day orientation visit to the Library, and along with several Library staff made a presentation to the Corporation Campaign Steering Committee on October 13, 1995. Team Library's leaders are Ron Margolin, Associate Vice President of Development for Corporations and Foundations, and Geoffrey Liggett, Associate Director, Corporations and Foundations.
Attaining the goals outlined in the Library's campaign will have a significant, positive impact on collections and services. We look forward to working with our colleagues in Development over the next ten months toward these objectives, and hope that we will continue to have your support.
Merrily E. Taylor
Joukowsky Family University Librarian