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Last August, in response to a letter from seventeen departmental library representatives, President Hatch affirmed his support for Wake Forest libraries. Shortly after, he pledged a portion of the money raised through the Presidential Trust campaign to the Z. Smith Reynolds Library. The first project the Library funded with the Trust money was our first-ever round of “Presidential Grants.”

The grants are intended to fund special purchases and collection development projects. This year, the Library received 29 proposals and awarded just over $50,000. Individual grants ranged from $1,000 to $4,500. Projects funded include:

• retrospective developing of our ethnomusicology collection,
• filling in gaps in our holdings of the “The Pacific World: Lands, Peoples, and History of the Pacific” series,
• strengthening our collection in religious counseling, and
• acquiring of books/videos on contemporary Palestine and conflict management/resolution between Israel and Palestine.

We also gave grants to purchase expensive reference sources such as the Encyclopedia of Inorganic Chemistry.

Thank you to everyone who participated in the program! We anticipate awarding a second round of grants next spring, so think about potential projects.