Windows Newsletter 10-05.qxd - University of North Carolina at ...

ON THE COVER: Television and film star
Andy Griffith, one of Carolina’s most famous
alumni, donates his personal collection
chronicling his successful career to the
Southern Historical Collection.
Photograph courtesy of North Carolina Collection, University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill
Windows is published by the Friends
of the Library under the auspices of
the University Library, UNC-Chapel
Hill. Send requests and comments to
CB# 3920, Davis Library,
Chapel Hill, NC 27514-8890.
Guest Editor
Kate Barnhart
Managing Editor
Kate Barnhart
Editorial Board
Kate Barnhart
Michele Fletcher
Tanya Fortner
Writers
Michele Fletcher
Charles McNamara
Sarah Michalak
Peggy Myers
Judy Panitch
Ginger Travis
Patrick Winn
Photographs
Alison Duncan
Stephen J. Fletcher
Allen Ginsberg
Peggy Myers
North Carolina Collection
Bill Richards
Andrew Ross
Andre Savine Collection
Dan Sears
Fred Stipe
Don Sturkey
Thanks to
Peggy Myers
Judy Panitch
Margaretta Yarborough
Design
Alison Duncan
Message from the University Librarian
This issue of Windows
was conceived months ago
as a celebration of giving.
Today, as I write in early
September, an enormous
relief effort in the wake of
Hurricane Katrina takes
shape. The Carolina community
is mobilizing with
concerned people everywhere
to provide aid and
support in every imaginable
form. Campus organizations
are collecting and delivering
supplies, the university is welcoming
displaced students, and our medical personnel
are serving in affected areas.
Catastrophe again reminds us how deeply
compassionate Americans can be. In the
library we know that vital collections of
books and cultural heritage will need to
be rebuilt and recovered, and we are
considering the best ways to offer our
assistance.
Against this backdrop, we are
especially glad to reflect in this issue of
Windows on the importance of gifts in the
everyday life of our library, quite removed
from disasters and crises. Philanthropy
is a distinctly American phenomenon
practiced at every level of income and
in nearly every walk of life. Giving to
Carolina’s libraries typifies this great spirit
that ennobles our country and enhances
the quality of our lives. Gifts to the library
are both small and very large—this year,
for example, we received donations of $5
as well as the pledge of a collection valued
at $2 million. Donors range from students
to University faculty and administrators,
and from “ordinary” North Carolinians to
some of the wealthiest people in the
South.
This year, our donors made more
than 3,555 individual gifts to the library,
supporting dozens of particular interests.
We receive books, of course, from the very
plain to the splendid, and also unique
manuscripts, rare recordings, and notable
art works. Recently we received an
authentic set of NBC chimes from the
2
early days of network radio.
Gifts support a small but
very welcome bouquet of
flowers, refreshed weekly,
in the Davis Library main
concourse and donations
provided the beautiful cherry
furnishings for the R.B.
House Undergraduate
Library.
Our donors are
increasingly knowledgeable
about library needs in the
fast-changing electronic era and so they
are more often giving flexible dollars that
can be used for everything, from software
development, to book-buying trips in
developing regions, to the high-end
equipment our students and researchers
require.
Philanthropy is at the heart of our
national spirit because it connects us
with each other in so many different
ways. Private giving saves lives, alleviates
hunger, and softens loneliness and
despair. Donors to libraries also touch
lives. Years ago I encountered an acquaintance
emerging from the library stacks. It
was easy to see that she had been crying.
When I inquired she told me that she had
been browsing from book to book and
happened to pick up a particular volume.
Upon opening it she discovered from the
bookplate that it had been given long
ago in honor of her aunt. Her aunt had
died just the week before, she told me,
adding, “My aunt would have loved this
coincidence, and somehow, knowing her
name will always be here in the library’s
collection for others to find is a great
comfort to me!”
Dear Library Donors –Friends of the
Library – thank you so much for every
thing you do for Carolina’s libraries.
Please be assured that whatever form
your gift takes, it will last for generations
and will touch lives in ways that you may
never know.
Photograph by Bill Richards
Sarah C. Michalak