Friends Group Gives Funds for Library Purchases

Gifts totaling more than $27,000 from the Friends of the University of Rochester Libraries will fund a collection of African documentary films, two early print editions by one of Spain’s most famous writers, Miguel de Cervantes, and a variety of materials on nanoscience, among other projects.

Library proposals receiving funding for 2005 are:

• Eighteen new award-winning documentaries by and about Africans for Rush Rhees Library. They will be used to contribute to research and teaching in several departments of the College and the Frederick Douglass Institute for African and African-American Studies.
• Two rare first editions from 1738 and 1755 that include biographies of Cervantes and early translations of Don Quixote de la Mancha (1505) for the Rare Books and Special Collections Library. A conference is planned on River Campus in November to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the first edition of Don Quixote. Each edition has several volumes and will be on exhibit during the conference.
• Creation of a Debate Union Fund at Rush Rhees Library to purchase books to support the University of Rochester debate team. Since topics for debate competitions change yearly, the fund would allow the purchase of books by distinguished authors on prominent national and international policy issues.
• A facsimile of a history of optics two-volume set from the 18th century, which is considered important to the development of the field, for the History of Optics Collection at Rush Rhees Library.
• Additional publications in the expanding area of nanoscience where very tiny bits of material have trigged much interest in diverse fields.
• Sibley Music Library’s acquisition of scores by contemporary composers Karlheinz Stockhausen of Germany and French composer and conductor Pierre Boulez.
• Edward G. Miner Library’s subscription to an online encyclopedia of medical images.

Members of the Friends executive committee review proposals each year and make selections. The committee voted to provide more funds this year, making this the second largest distribution in the 32-year history of the Friends.