When you support KU Libraries, you support all Jayhawks. Your gift empowers the discoveries made, the stories written, the minds expanded with impacts that shine across the university, the greater community and the world.
When you support KU Libraries, you support all Jayhawks. Your gift empowers the discoveries made, the stories written, the minds expanded with impacts that shine across the university, the greater community and the world.
You remember your favorite study spots in Watson, late nights in Anschutz gathered around group projects, or the librarian at Spencer Research Library who helped solve your research challenges. So much of student life and academic success happens at the library.
The world of information is constantly changing and increasingly challenging to evaluate and use effectively. Today’s students need access to a wide range of digital resources and — now more than ever — they need guidance in how to use them. Faculty researchers gain insights and advantages not only from employing KU Libraries’ tools and technologies, but from fundamental collaboration with our librarian experts.
KU Libraries are where we connect, a community platform that propels each Jayhawk to excellence.
KU Libraries are at the heart of learning and discovery and a key partner in student success and scholarly impact in the digital age. Through leadership in open resource sharing, our libraries enable student and faculty researchers to connect to information without cost barriers. KU Libraries also provide a powerful framework to broaden the reach of faculty projects in a worldwide network of scholarship. Our Makerspace teaches creative problem-solving skills and encourages inventive course assignments using 3D printing, podcasting, A/V postproduction and more. Outreach to K-12 schools and off-campus groups allows the greater community to discover stories from KU, Kansas and around the world through encounters with rare and historic items within our remarkable collections.
The libraries’ work strengthens Jayhawk contributions to the international network of knowledge and ripples out to magnify efforts in every academic department at KU, continuously enabling student and faculty success. When you support the libraries, you support the entire KU mission.
In 2024, Watson Library celebrates 100 years as a cornerstone of the KU community. When you support Watson Library, you will join us in ensuring the continued evolution of library spaces as effective, welcoming environments; providing access to cutting-edge technology and information; and building the human connections essential to navigating the current world of knowledge.
Now is the time to make a transformative gift to the Libraries to address the following priorities:
Spark a love of research for undergraduate students, fueling higher retention, graduation rates and academic resources. Students will work with librarians to conduct primary research as part of capstone projects using the rich resources within Distinctive Collections. We will fund awards programs to recognize excellence and engage faculty in undergraduate student research using library resources,
Facilitate learning, encourage creative exploration and ease student financial burden by enabling short term loans of technology and recreation equipment to assist with academic and co-curricular pursuits. Establishing a Gear Up & Go collection to provide students with resources vital to an exceptional educational experience, we can equip students with the tools to succeed in a connected world.
Upgrading public spaces will provide modernization of classroom and gallery spaces for areas such as the Institute for Digital Research in the Humanities, the Anschutz Makerspace, a New Watson Library gallery space for University Archives historical exhibit, the Spencer North Gallery and the Spencer central exhibit space.
Establishing an open research data repository or suite of resources with incentive programs and student employee support will better support faculty and meet emerging needs.
Enhancing the campus-wide student educational experience through a makerspace will provide a dynamic environment where students can learn, innovate and grow both personally and professionally. A new, state-of-the-art makerspace centrally located in Watson Library will foster creativity, collaboration and innovation. The makerspace will 3D printing capabilities, laser cutters, CNC machines, sewing machines, woodworking and more.
Easing student financial burdens and supporting student retention by expanding Open Educational Resources (OER) which provide low and no cost textbooks. More than 10,000 students already save $1 million each year by using OER resources. Funding will enable faculty and graduate students to adapt, adopt or create OER materials.
Encouraging a love of reading and expansion of ideas, by providing a respite from academic work through inviting displays of leisure reading materials, making books for personal enrichment available to a wider audience and providing for a newly piloted Student Curator Program.
Enhancing the intellectual and cultural vitality of KU through presentation of diverse voices and perspectives by creating a new lecture series to attract engaging and dialogue-provoking speakers to advance knowledge exchange.
Partnering with communities across Kansas to document, preserve and share their stories, histories, documents and photographs, ensuring these narratives are accessible to wider audiences and future generations. This includes the development of a state-of-the-art digitization lab in Watson Library to expand KU Libraries’ capabilities
Accelerating KU’s internationalization goals and strengthening KU’s global impact via the Libraries’ recently established new Institute for Globally Engaged Librarianship (IGEL). Through sustainable and mutually beneficial partnerships worldwide, IGEL will advance the University’s internationalization ambitions by leveraging KU Libraries’ unique position as a nexus of knowledge, resources, people and ideas. This is a new initiative with planet-sized potential.
Recognizing collaboration in librarianship through a new, annual Libraries Team Award that will strengthen cross-functional library operations.
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1891 Constant Ave, Lawrence, KS 66047 | PO Box 928, Lawrence, KS 66044 | 785•832•7400 | 800•444•4201
