NO.64
FALL
2003
BENE LEGERE
NEWSLETTER
OF THE
LIBRARY ASSOCIATES
The Library Associates
Join more than 6,000 other friends, book lovers, alumni, and faculty who recognize that the influence of a great research library reaches beyond the university it serves to the many communities of which it is a part.
Library Associates receive complimentary copies of the quarterly newsletter Bene Legere, as well as invitations to special occasions at the Library. For more information on the Library Associates program, please write or telephone: The Library Development Office, Room 131 Doe Library, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-6000; telephone (510) 642-9377. Or, check our website.
Letter from Sheryl Wong ’67, Library Advisory Board President
Dear Friends of the University Library:On behalf of the members of the Library Advisory Board, I am pleased to provide you with this special issue of the Library’s newletter, Bene Legere, that contains the Annual Report of donors for 2002-2003. This issue highlights the contributions that were made to the Library during the last year by many, many friends like you—this year numbering over 6,000, the most donors in our history.
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As the president of the Library Advisory Board, I am always glad to express my appreciation for the support of so many donors to Library programs and collections. You make it possible through your generosity for Cal’s extraordinary library to continue to provide invaluable services and resources to thousands and thousands of students, faculty, and scholars, and to the general public—because, beyond all else, we are a great public library.
Cal’s alumni have been playing an increasingly important role in supporting the Library. Many classes celebrating a special reunion this year made the UC Berkeley Library the beneficiary in whole or in part of their class gifts. For those wonderful gestures, we are exceptionally grateful and thankful. I would like to single out the 60th and 50th reunion Classes of 1943 and 1953 that are providing very generous support to the Library by establishing endowments that leave Library legacies at Cal that will not be forgotten.
Also worth a very special mention is the Class of 1958. This class is establishing a major endowment fund to support the Mark Twain Project in The Bancroft Library with not only its campaign for the current 45th reunion, but also for its 50th in 2008.
The Library is said to be the heart of a campus. At Cal, that sentiment has never been more truthful. In 2003, while UC Berkeley was being acknowledged as the premier public university in America, the University Library also was being acknowledged for the second year in a row as the finest public research university library in North America by the annual survey of the Association of Research Libraries—and third overall only behind Harvard and Yale. The company our library keeps is quite exceptional. It may be safe to say that this university’s heart is definitely in excellent shape! I would add that your support has helped to keep us so heart-healthy.
Thank you for your help—and for the confidence you have in the Cal Library. Go Library! Go Bears!
Sheryl Wong ’67
President, Library Advisory Board