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Library Acquisitions History Enhanced
In a paper that he wrote on Academic Excellence, former dean Stephen Ainlay, explained that the Library is in urgent need of support—especially during these financially challenging times.
“Within the Library, this (the costs of doing business) is most evident in the area of periodicals, where we have experienced price increases of 10 percent a year. We have not been able to keep pace with these increased charges, which forces us to cut our collections. This has a negative impact on students and faculty who rely on these journals and magazines to do their work.”
One recent gift made by an alumnus—to establish a History Fund at the Library—is helping the library to reverse the deficit. James Hogan, director of library services, said a $100,000 gift was made that will allow him, with the history department, to make an acquisition plan to buy scholarly journals and periodicals with the knowledge that the necessary funding will be there.
“It is the journal literature that keeps our faculty and students in touch with the very latest research and thinking in their respective fields. It is in journals that ideas are first tested and scrutinized by the scholarly community,” Hogan says. This gift will have an immediate and lasting impact on history students and faculty at the College.