Inaugural issue: Fall 2007 (PDF, 829K)
Dean's MessageWelcome to the first issue of Bibliophile, KU Libraries’ new, semi-annual publication for our friends and benefactors.
During my first year, I saw firsthand the pride and prestige associated with this great university, due in large part to the unparalleled support of its advocates. Libraries are the heart of a university, and patrons and friends are the heart of a library. Since I joined the KU Libraries family, I have been delighted to see a growing interest in our endeavors.
I strongly believe there is a natural and mutually beneficial relationship between a library and its supporters, and I am pleased to tell you that one of my strategic priorities for the current academic year is to better engage our extended library family.
In this and future issues of Bibliophile, you’ll read about developments in our collections and other resources, new services and perhaps most importantly, how private support to the Libraries benefits an entire campus. We will also share news about upcoming events and other outreach efforts.
Thank you for you interest and involvement in KU Libraries. I look forward to working with you as we build an even stronger reputation for excellence in scholarship, teaching and service at our institution.
lorraine j. haricombe
Dean, KU Libraries
A strong library system means a strong university. Your gift to KU Libraries impacts people and programs throughout the campus. The following funding priorities reflect the Libraries’ critical mission on campus:
Collections
KU Libraries’ print and electronic collections support research and learning in every area of study on campus. Gifts to this area support building and processing collections in the social sciences, humanities and science and technology areas.
Increasingly, libraries rely on technology to manage, store and deliver services to patrons. Specific areas in need of support include servers, imaging equipment, scanners and instructional technologies.
With seven libraries across two campuses, facilities maintenance and improvements remain an ongoing priority. Your support ensures that facilities including Watson, Anschutz and Spencer Research Libraries will serve generations to come.
Librarians are the critical link between patrons and information. Gifts supporting professional development and training in new skills and expertise mean KU Libraries can continue to deliver top-notch support to campus people and priorities.
To support excellence at KU Libraries, visit www.kuendowment.org. Thank you for all you do to help KU and the KU Libraries.
A recent gift to the University of Kansas Libraries will significantly enhance the collection of regional African American research materials at KU.
Dana and Sue Anderson, longtime KU donors, made the $20,000 gift, which will support studies of the region’s historical ethnic and racial diversity through the African American documentation program, part of the Kansas Collection at Spencer Research Library.
“The Andersons have made many generous contributions that have enabled KU Libraries to improve research through the regional African American experience collection,” said Lorraine J. Haricombe, dean of KU Libraries. “Thanks to their vision, the Libraries have been able to process and produce online finding aids for the collections acquired by our African American documentation program.”
Dana Anderson earned a bachelor’s degree in business from KU in 1959 and is currently vice-chairman of the board for the Santa Monica-based Macerich Company. He and his wife have supported KU Libraries since 1996. Their gifts have enabled KU Libraries to build an expanded collecting program designed to increase opportunities for researchers interested in state and regional history.
The Andersons made this most recent gift in honor of their friends, Dr. George T. Grigsby, a physician in Las Vegas, and Deborah Dandridge, KU Libraries field archivist for African American Collections. The gift will be managed by KU Endowment.
The African American Collections house the personal, political and professional papers of prominent regional African American leaders, including members of the Kansas Legislature, well-known attorneys and religious leaders from Kansas.
“Our collection efforts have amassed significant resources for studies in the Kansas region,” Dandridge said. “We are able to document the contributions and achievements of African Americans to this region through the records of schools, businesses, churches and clubs, and the papers of families and individuals. The Andersons’ support enables us to make these items available for all researchers to use.”
An excerpt of the address by Deborah Dandridge, KU Libraries’ field archivist for African American Collections, at the September 21 reception honoring Dana and Sue Anderson:
The Dana and Sue Anderson Endowment Fund for KU Libraries African American documentation program is a tribute to a friendship that began in 1971 when the Andersons defied social and economic community pressure by buying a house next door to Dr. George Grigsby in Topeka’s Sherwood Estates. Several months later I met the Andersons, who impressed me with their genuine welcoming manner. Before long, we were all enjoying each other’s company at a variety of social gatherings and began vacationing together.
Our friendship over these decades has been a unique one. In addition to breaking down the color line, we’ve remained friends through our diversity. During our younger years, I recall our dinners at restaurants that sometimes ended up as shouting matches between Dana, the true capitalist, and me, the Black Power socialist, while George and Sue would roll their eyes and begin talking about tennis or houseplants. Despite the humble background of George’s Tarheel experience at the University of North Carolina from undergraduate through medical school, Dana and I never flaunted the superiority of the Jayhawk. Indeed, our friendship has survived decades and the geographical distance from Kansas to California and Nevada.
The Dana and Sue Anderson Fund also symbolizes a strong shared belief that, unlike any other country in western society, our nation holds the promise of equality of opportunity for all—the African American Collections represent that belief. From generous donations of African American families, community leaders, businesses, organizations and churches throughout the region, our documentation program reveals a value system that upholds the primacy of family, the importance of hard work, and an unwavering belief that no dreams can be deferred.
KU Libraries recently joined the ranks of several other prestigious universities in contributing materials to the Digital Scriptorium, an image database that compiles images from medieval manuscripts from many institutions into an online tool that can be used for teaching and research worldwide.
Scholars, historians, musicologists, classicists and medievalists use the Digital Scriptorium to search images according to their origins and quality. Housed online at Columbia University, the Digital Scriptorium includes 5,300 manuscripts and 24,300 images. The Department of Special Collections at KU’s Kenneth Spencer Research Library contributed cataloging for 228 manuscripts and documents, and 779 images from its extensive collections.
Learn more at www.scriptorium.columbia.edu.
KU Libraries’ recent acquisition of one of four major, worldwide collections devoted to the works of John Bunyan puts the Department of Special Collections in good company. Only the British Library, the New York Public Library and Harvard University can stake a similar claim.
Bunyan wrote Pilgrim’s Progress, which, according to Richard Clement, head of Special Collections at KU’s Spencer Research Library, has appeared in more editions and has been more often translated than any other single English work. “It is certainly one of the single most influential books in the English language,” Clement noted.
Assembled over the course of four decades by Professor Emeritus Robert Collmer of Baylor University, this collection of more than 700 works by and about Bunyan has the potential to impact research across campus. Collmer gifted a portion of the valuable collection; KU Libraries was able to purchase the remainder using funds from unrestricted private gifts.
“A significant aspect of the Collmer Collection is its emphasis on illustration,” said Clement. “Additionally, the collection covers editions and translations from Bunyan’s lifetime up to the end of the 20th century. Almost every year in the 19th century is represented.”
READ Posters Featuring KU Coaches, Athletes, MascotsKU Libraries and the university’s athletics program are teaming up to promote literacy on campus and throughout the Lawrence community. This fall, the Libraries unveiled a series of five new READ posters featuring Football Coach Mark Mangino, Men’s Basketball Coach Bill Self, Women’s Basketball Coach Bonnie Henrickson, Big Jay and Baby Jay, and KU student-athletes.
The posters will be distributed across campus and in elementary schools throughout the city to promote the simple but powerful act of reading. The American Library Association originated the READ poster campaign more than 20 years ago and has featured celebrities, sports figures and authors.
In 1978, Christopher Budd, an undergraduate student in fine arts, was working as a student assistant in a public services position at the Watson Library Reserve Room. Thirty years later, he’s leading the strategic planning division of a major international architecture firm. Budd develops research methods, planning applications, flexible infrastructures, and products that support contemporary work environments.
Bayliss Harsh, program assistant for KU Libraries, knows why.
“He was sharp, articulate, fun, approachable, friendly and interesting,” Harsh said. “Chris was one of the cream of the crop.”
After receiving his bachelor’s degree in 1983, Budd earned a master’s degree in environmental analysis from Cornell University. He is now principal-in-charge of the Washington, DC office of STUDIOS, an architecture firm with additional offices in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York and Paris. STUDIOS specializes in innovative architecture and interior design for commercial, academic, civic and government agencies worldwide.
loomberg, MTV, Disney and LVMH are some of their more prestigious clients, and Budd has consulted with such clients as the Pentagon, Accenture, The Coca-Cola Company, The Discovery Channel and Nokia. In 2001, his work was featured in the Museum of Modern Art.
Budd has fond memories of his time at KU and returns regularly as a guest speaker on campus.
“I had a great boss, Bayliss, at the library—so great I worked for her throughout my time at KU,” said Budd. “Working at the library was always a source of enjoyment—the reserved material was so fascinating. I remember this particular book, The Moral Philosophy of the Peasant, had me completely captivated, and I used to be slightly cranky when it was checked out. I believe that five years of access to such diverse topics influenced my decision to supplement my design education at KU with my research degree.”
It takes a tremendous amount of teamwork to deliver outstanding service to a campus of more than 30,000. Fortunately, more than 300 student employees help KU Libraries meet the scholarly needs of faculty, staff and students each semester.
Each issue of Bibliophile will highlight one of the 7,300 University of Kansas alumni who worked for the Libraries while they were students on campus. Send us an update—we’d love to hear from you! Email Rebecca Smith at rasmith@ku.edu and let us know where you are now.
Bibliophile is published in print and online semi-annually by the University of Kansas Libraries for alumni, friends and benefactors. Printing is paid for with private contributions. Correspondence should be sent to rasmith@ku.edu or mailed to:
Bibliophile
502 Watson Library
1425 Jayhawk Blvd.
Lawrence, KS 66045
Editor - Rebecca Smith
Design and editorial assistance – Sarah Kanning
Contributing writer – Dylan Sands
Editorial Board:
Lorraine J. Haricombe, KU Libraries Dean
Tami Albin , Jeff Bullington, Bayliss Harsh, Jana Krentz, Holly Mercer, Bill Myers, John Stratton, Sarah Goodwin Thiel and Sherry Williams.
Copyright © 2013 by the University of Kansas