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ENDOWMENT FUNDING IN ACADEMIC LIBRARIES: Pitfalls and Potential

Robert C. Miller

The Bottom Line

ISSN: 0888-045X

Article publication date: 1 January 1988

97

Abstract

Fiscal support from endowments is a longstanding tradition in many institutions of higher education. The first known endowment in an American academic library resulted from a bequest of £500 from Thomas Hollis to the Harvard College Library in 1774. The number of endowments grew steadily in the 1800s, and by the turn of the century there were significant endowments in many libraries, including Yale, Columbia, the University of Pennsylvania, Brown, the University of Virginia, and the University of North Carolina. Some institutions came to be heavily dependent on trusts for library funding. Between 1928 and 1956, for example, endowment supplied the total budgetary allocation for acquisitions at the Dartmouth College Library. Similarly, as late as the early 1950s, all of the book funds for the Harvard College Library came from its endowment.

Citation

Miller, R.C. (1988), "ENDOWMENT FUNDING IN ACADEMIC LIBRARIES: Pitfalls and Potential", The Bottom Line, Vol. 1 No. 1, pp. 23-27. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb025097

Publisher

:

MCB UP Ltd

Copyright © 1988, MCB UP Limited

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