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Sharing the Excitement
Paul Kobulnicky
Director, University of Connecticut Libraries
In 1995, as the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center neared completion, the attention of the university community was focused on this new center of excellence as symbolic of the university's striving toward an ever-higher level of quality. In stark contrast, the neighboring Homer Babbidge Library stood in unfortunate disrepair, awaiting correction of its structural defects. Three years later, Babbidge has emerged from its cocoon of plastic wrap and scaffolding, and the situation is dramatically different. The Dodd Center is fulfilling its promise as a first-rate venue for academic and cultural programs of the highest quality. And the renovation of the Babbidge Library has progressed to a point where it is once again becoming the symbol of the University's, and the State's, commitment to rebuild and to thrive.
Beyond its obvious functional value to the library and the academic community, creation of the Dodd Center was important for another reason. It attracted the interest of individuals who were committed to the memory and spirit of Thomas Dodd. That commitment led to their determination to help the university strengthen its research collections and to house them in a facility that would preserve them for generations of scholars. Philanthropic contributions to the library in support of excellence increased dramatically. Some of those contributions are reflected in facilities such as the Dodd Center's Doris and Simon Konover Auditorium and Stamford's Leonard and Barbara Schreiber Reading Room, in programs like the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Lecture Series, and in collections enriched by endowments like the Nathan Whetten Endowment for Latin American Collections. We are deeply indebted to our benefactors because these and similar gifts from other families and individuals provide us with the resources needed to build distinguished collections and to develop excellent programs.
As the Babbidge Library renovation nears completion, we have an extraordinary opportunity to achieve new levels of quality in our fundamental mission to support teaching, learning and research. Renovation of the library runs much deeper than its handsome new facade. We are also restoring and updating the interiors of the building, we are revising our basic services with a new commitment to user comfort and convenience, and we are transforming our primary service floor to provide state-of-the-art information and research services that will serve faculty and students well into the foreseeable future.
The excitement generated by the promise of a renewed library has already led to significant anniversary gifts from the UConn Class of 1947 and the Class of 1948 as well as support from the Coca-Cola Corporation and SNET. Support from these and other sources is detailed elsewhere in this issue. We are deeply grateful for these contributions and pledge to use them, and other gifts, to enhance both the success of our students and the competitiveness of our faculty.
We invite you to share our excitement. Please join with us as a partner in the development of what will shortly be the finest public research library in New England. To achieve this vision will require significant resources-considerably more than those available through annual operating budgets. Many opportunities for support are available, at many different financial levels. If you would like to help, in any way, at whatever level, please call Linda Perrone, Director of Library Development, 860-486-2219 or 860-486-0451.
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