Contributions to The Marian Library are used to purchase Marian books, provide scholarships for students, develop new programs, conduct research, and support the Marian Library's publications. Our mission is to acquire every significant Marian book and the materials necessary to preserve the rich Catholic Marian heritage, while encouraging and sponsoring studies on the Virgin Mary that look to the future. By making a donation, remembering the Marian Library in your will, or establishing a scholarship in your name or in memory of a loved one, you will help ensure that the Marian Library will be able to assist those who wish to study the Church's Marian doctrine and tradition.

For a list of our 2008 donors, see: Friends of The Marian Library

Contributing to the Marian Library's Future

A recent fund-raising appeal from the University of Notre Dame Libraries stated, "On average, the cost to acquire, catalog and shelve one library book is about $80." For The Marian Library, the cost is even higher. The actual cost of the book is only a small part of the total costs. Researching information on the book, processing the order, cataloging, classifying, labeling, and shelving--all add to the final cost. Rendering the Marian Library's collection into an online catalog is a costly undertaking.

The computer has replaced the card catalog at most public and college libraries. The advent of the online system simplified the cataloging process: if a book is already in a library in this country, catalogers search out the record from a national online system and make it part of their local online catalog. But specialized libraries face special challenges.

The Marian Library has many works not found in other libraries in this country: rare books, books from small religious publishers, books from monasteries, shrines, and many foreign publications. More than forty percent of its holdings are 'unique', that is, not found in other libraries or in the national online system. Cataloging 'unique' items is time-consuming and requires several skills: languages, religious history, knowledge of current cataloging rules, and proficiency in several computer programs.

To assure that records of its entire collection are available in an international accessible system, the Marian Library has contracted the services of the Online Computer Library Center, Inc. (OCLC), Dublin, Ohio. Each month a shipment of books or cards from the Marian Library is delivered for online cataloging. The Rare Books (published in sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries) and the Clugnet Collection were the first to be processed this way: more than eighty percent of these works was not found elsewhere and required "original" cataloging.

In the first eighteen months of the project, over thirteen thousand books were made available in the online system at a cost of $120,000. The project will continue for the next four years. The project is possible because of the assistance of the Marianist Foundation and contributions from many individuals. We are particularly grateful to Arthur W. Clinton, Jr., a 1953 graduate of the University of Dayton, who died in 1992, and remembered the Marian Library with a generous bequest in his will. These contributions, including a major one from the Marianist Province of Cincinnati, have allowed us to establish an endowment to acquire books, support the cataloging project, and provide other services (including the printing and mailing of this newsletter).

As part of the University of Dayton's fundraising campaign, we ask you to consider designating your contribution for The Marian Library Endowment/IMRI. In this way, we can continue this cataloging project, initiate a much-needed digitization project (for images and thousands of informational items), and provide and support programs on Marian devotion and scholarship.

UD Marian and Roesch Libraries Online Giving Page

You are invited to become a 2009 Friend of The Marian Library and IMRI.
Benefactor $250
Patron $150
Member $50
Any amount welcome.

Your contribution to The Marian Library Endowment supports the mission of The Marian Library
and the International Marian Research Institute.

Return to The Mary Page

This page, maintained by The Marian Library/International Marian Research Institute, Dayton, Ohio 45469-1390, and created by Kris Sommers was last modified Monday, 08/31/2009 14:49:44 EDT by Michael P. Duricy. Please send any comments to Johann.Roten@udayton.edu.

URL for this page is http://campus.udayton.edu/mary/development.html