Campaign: The Library and Campaign Northwestern
(Please Note: Campaign Northwestern is currently over. This page is under construction, and will remain up until such time as new information is available.)
Through the generosity of alumni and friends, Northwestern University Library raised over $30.5 million against an original goal of $15 million and a revised goal of $22.5 million. Donors directed nearly $26 million to endowment in support of the collections, the Library’s highest priority. For details please click here.
Northwestern University Library is embarking on a post-campaign initiative to identify Threshold Collections—those collections that will be moved to the next level of distinction and which support Northwestern University curricular strengths. We look forward to sharing information soon about these exciting initiatives.
What is Campaign Northwestern?
Campaign Northwestern is a five-year University-wide fundraising campaign.
Will Campaign Northwestern have an impact on the Library?
Yes. With its goal of $1.4 billion, Campaign Northwestern underpins the University's plans to enhance its academic standing. The ability of Northwestern to define academic excellence and to recruit star faculty will rest, in part, on a Library with collections and staff that support such intellectual ambitions. As the University looks to Campaign Northwestern to raise its academic sights, the mandate to enhance the library and its collections mounts as well. Northwestern University Library looks to Campaign Northwestern as a springboard to raise endowment to support the collections.
Through a gift to the Library during Campaign Northwestern, donors directly participate in Northwestern University's academic aspirations and, in fact, help to accomplish them.
Should alumni and friends give to Northwestern University Library?
Yes. Northwestern University Library is universal, in that it supports the University across the board. The Library's collections, for example, reflect the curricular needs of every school and academic program as well as the research interests of each faculty member. The collections are available to every student -- whether in the undergraduate, graduate, or continuing education curriculum -- throughout multiple years of study. As the intellectual center of Northwestern University, the Library provides scholarly material in all formats: traditional materials like books and journals, and electronic resources such as databases. Users can readily access these collections at the Library and through web portals.
How important is it to support Northwestern University Library?
Once equivalent to its peers, such as Duke University and the University of Chicago, Northwestern ranks a distant third in what is allocated in the budget to support the collections. In the 1999 Association of Research Libraries Statistics,* for example, Northwestern ranks 34, behind Duke (17) and the University of Chicago (20) in total materials expenditures -- that is, what it spends each year on all scholarly materials for Northwestern schools, academic programs, faculty and students.
Although Northwestern University has increased budget allocations for the Library and its collections, it would take double-digit increases over many years to bring Northwestern's Library into parity, once again, with peers such as Duke and the University of Chicago.
*The most current information published
What is the Library's Campaign Goal?
The Library's campaign goal is $22.5 million, which breaks down as follows:
- $20 million for endowment to support the collections - both traditional and electronic;
- $1.0 million for unrestricted- primarily to be used to build the collections now and for technology;
- $1.5 million for facilities
What will endowment do for the collections?
Endowment provides a steady stream of income, in perpetuity, to support the collections. Increased endowment will secure the Library's current and future ability to shape the collections to the University's academic priorities -- now and as they change -- whether related to the curriculum, to new academic centers created, or to new faculty hired who need collections for their teaching and research. Such endowment support is in addition to the University's budget allocation for the collections.
Learn more about funding priorities for endowments at the Library.
Learn more about Campaign Northwestern.
