The Year of the Library

We celebrate during this academic year both the 25th anniversary of the Joseph Mark Lauinger Memorial Library (in 1995) and the 200th anniversary (in 1996) of the beginning of library service at Georgetown. From the initiative of Father DuBourg in 1796 has grown a research library of which we can be, and are, justly proud. But a few Library Associates may have noticed another in this academic year's series of anniversaries: 1995 marks the 20th anniversary of the Library Associates themselves.

The library's growth since 1960 has been particularly striking: the main collection of books and periodicals has swollen from a little over 200,000 volumes to almost 1,500,000. In 1983 we marked the occasion of Lauinger's acquisition of its millionth volume. In 1994 the total university collection (including the law and medical libraries) rose past the 2,000,000 volume mark.

This growth reflects a vastly increased budget for acquisitions. In 1937 the library had no formal budget for purchases-just over 1,100 books and journals were bought, all on a one-at-a-time basis. In 1958-59 the library spent $36,535 on book purchases, and got 6,449 titles. By 1961-62 annual acquisitions were more than 20,000 volumes, a figure gradually increased since. In the year just ended we spent a little more than $2,300,000 and added nearly 29,000 volumes to the collections: 5,000 volumes more than were added to the Riggs Library in the entire decade from 1937 to 1947.

Income from library endowments and restricted funds provided nearly $200,000 to supplement last year's regular university acquisitions budget. Since 1975, when the Library Associates first met, growth in the library's endowment has burgeoned. The first library endowment at Georgetown came from the bequest of Archbishop John Carroll in 1815-16; the second, the James Ethelbert Morgan Fund, started providing for the acquisition of materials on the colonial history of Maryland in 1906. Planning for, and building, Lauinger resulted in the donation of a generous series of endowments, and in recent years the Newsletter has reported regularly on new capital gifts from alumni and friends of the university and library.

September and October saw events in Los Angeles, where Ambassador William Wilson lectured; in Savannah, in London; and in Paris, where author Larry Collins spoke, as well as in Washington. Work on the Associates calendar for the balance of the year continues, guided by Roseanne McIlvane Casey (G'79), chair of the Year of the Library Steering Committee.

The library and the Library Associates owe a special note of thanks to Robert M. Edmund (B'70) and his daughter Nicole Edmund (C'90) for the production and design of a special "year of the library" brochure soliciting membership in the Associates.