Gifts & Endowments

Gifts and endowments supplement the library's overall budget and are crucial to maintaining its collections, operations and services.  A total of twenty-seven new gifts and endowments have been received since 1999 with the value of these contributions nearing $6,000,000; the library receives only the income on the principal of the endowments. Outstanding collections, services, and programs have been acquired or implemented because of gift and endowment investments. The following list represents just a few examples highlighting some of these services and the fiscal responsibility of Kelvin Smith Library:

Used to purchase scholarly materials and enable the creation of the Library Opportunity Grant Awards program, which awards funding to faculty to acquire interdisciplinary or specialized resources that enhance current collecting, as well as foster collaboration between faculty and librarians.

Provided the capital funds to design and create the Samuel B. and Marian K. Freedman Digital Library, Language Learning and Multimedia Services Center, over 2,700 square feet of highly functional workspace and state-of-the-art equipment for Case Western Reserve University’s faculty, students and staff to harness the power of technology and combine it with academic creativity. The remaining balance of the Freedman gift was used to create an endowment for emerging and innovative technology to be purchased for the Center.

Established the Freedman Fellows Program, which awards grants and assistance to full-time faculty who through a competitive process demonstrate how information technology or digital tools will be used to enhance their teaching or research.  Since it's inception, the Freedman Fellows Program has awarded $82,000, supported 24 faculty proposals, and 400+ graduate and undergraduate students have used multimedia technologies as a part of their learning at Case Western Reserve.  Projects funded include the enhancement of Ray Watkin's course, USSY 285: The Documentary Impulse, in which students developed and shot their own documentaries; the digitization and study of analog recordings of bottlenose dolphins by Sara Waller, Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Cognitive Science; and the creation of a legal module based on a famous nightclub fire, using video and document digitization, by David Carney and Andrew Dorchak of the Case School of Law.

Provides support on a project-by-project basis for funding of technology research, innovation, and policy formation.  Currently this fund has been used to fund the Library's Scholarly Communication Lecture Series, which brings in nationally renown speakers on the topics of digital libraries, digital preservation as well as their implementation in academia.  These sessions are free to the University community, as well as the Ohio academic & library communities, and recorded and made available to watch online.

Supports the professional growth activities of Kelvin Smith Library staff with priority given to activities that address the educational mission of the Library, emphasize fields of special librarianship, or study global information issues. This fund, along with Morino Fund has helped fund the Digital Library Lecture Series.   

Donations provided capital funds to renovate KSL’s Preservation Center.  Prior to the major renovation of the Preservation Department in 2007-08, the same furniture and equipment were still being used from the time of the department’s creation in the late 1970s. Since the department had experienced significant growth and had greatly expanded its services since that time, there was not nearly enough storage space, needed space was taken up by large flat tables with no built-in storage, and there was simply nowhere to put all the needed supplies.

Because old library furniture was being used, it did not really meet the specific needs of a book repair unit; therefore the room had become very disorganized to the point where the workflow was adversely affected and items were often difficult to locate. The funding received was used to purchase all new furniture with much-needed built-in storage and to paint the department. Two new units were hand-built to store oversized boards and paper as well as the large rolls of book cloth and other desks, workstations and storage islands were purchased and modified for a perfect and clean design.