Have you ever opened a Library book and wondered about the significance
of its specially printed bookplate? This is our way of identifying Library
materials that were purchased with funds from one of over 380 endowments.
Endowments are gifts that are held in perpetuity by the University.
The principal is invested in a consolidated endowment pool, and a portion
of the income realized by the investment is used each year to support
the program specified by the person or persons making the gift. The
remainder of the income is re-invested.
The gifts are essential to the Library. Of this yearês $5.8 information
resources budget, $1.1 million comes from endowments. The minimum required
to establish a new Library endowment is $100,000. While support for
the collections has been the primary focus of the endowments, there
are funds that support preservation, publications, salaries, staff development,
technology, and general operating expenses.
The first endowment was established in 1831, when the Universityês President,
Francis Wayland, called for subscriptions to a permanent Library fund.
Nicholas Brown provided an early boost with a $10,000 contribution.
By 1839, the fund had reached its goal of $25,000 through gifts and
accumulated interest, and in 1840, the Corporation named it The Library
Fund.
Recently, an endowment established in 1882 by the Class of 1880 as a
memorial to J. Lewis Diman, Class of 1851 and professor of History and
Political Economy from 1864 to 1881, provided funds towards the purchase
of a facsimile of the major manuscript of the Cantigas de Santa Maria
of Alfonso X of Spain. The facsimile, purchased for some $6,000 at the
request of several faculty members in Medieval Studies, contains many
illustrations, music, and texts venerating the Virgin Mary. It is accompanied
by recordings of the music. The original manuscript, commissioned in
the 13th century by Alfonso the Wise, King of Castile and Leon, is in
the library of the Escorial Palace near Madrid. The facsimile was used
extensively in the Spring in the team-taught course entitled "Medieval
Perspectives". History professor Amy Remensnyder had students using
the texts and illustrations as sources for the history of medieval Spain,
after which professors Sheila Bonde (History of Art) and Mercedes Vacquero
(Hispanic Studies), had their students studying the artistic and literary
aspects of the work.
Last year, the Robert Lewis, M.D. Electronic Library Fund provided support
for online access to "MD Consult". This is one of the most important
medical resources added to the Brown collection, providing medical students
and faculty with 37 major medical textbooks, over 40 journals, and clinical
guidelines and patient information. Access is available from on or off-campus:
the user may be in his/her office, on the wards seeing a patient or
in the Library doing research. It has been shown that timely access
to information does improve patient care, since it affects clinical
outcomes and the length of stay in hospitals. Access to MD Consult is
one of the ways Brown is utilizing technology to contribute to its success.
Douglas Squires '73 has generously endowed two funds for the enhancement
of the McLellan Lincoln Collection. The Squires Preservation Fund has
already generated enough income to provide custom-built, acid-free boxes
for the hundreds of prints and photographs in that collection, as well
as containers for 20th century pamphlets relating to the 16th President.
This year, the fund's income will be used to retain an expert to assist
the Library in planning future conservation and preservation work. In
only its first year, the Squires Acquisition Fund was used to buy a
rare, broadside edition of Carl Schurz's famed 1860 campaign speech
"Douglas and Popular Sovereignty." It also contributed significantly
toward the purchase of the January 1865 manuscript contracts arranging
the engraved edition of Francis Bicknell Carpenter's famed painting
"President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation before the Cabinet".
These contracts were also signed by Alexander Hay Ritchie, whose oil
painting "Death of President Lincoln" is one of the premier works of
art in the Lincoln Collection.
These are but a few recent highlights of the wealth of resources made
possible through endowments. The Library is very fortunate to have a
long history of donors who recognized the need to establish funds that
provide such lasting support. If you are interested in knowing more
about Library endowments, please contact 
Patricia_Putney@brown.edu
(x3-2954) and watch for a link to the list of endowments from the Library's
website.
---Patricia Putney, Head of Acquisitions
