Financial contributions to the Library during the past fiscal year have been substantial. This year the aggregate amount of all donations totaled $221,888. This is a significant increase from $125,822 in FY 1999 and $170,503 in FY 2000 and only slightly less than the peak high of $235,292 received in FY 2001 -the latter again being a reflection of the one-time, non-recurring Development phone-a-thon to enlist freshmen parents.

It is especially gratifying to report a total of $43,947 in gifts under $10,000 in FY 2002. These gifts reflect the interest and support of the largest proportion of our current 371 members. This support is much appreciated and has been put to very good use. Three gifts over $10,000 were made during the past year by Sondra and Howard Bender, Sam and Lucy Keker, and Roger and Nancy Brown.

As promised, the funds from these donations have been directed towards collection-building and collection-enhancement. The Library is using the money from donations under $10,000 exclusively to improve and increase the books, periodicals, non-print, and technological resources of the Library. Gifts over $10,000 (except where otherwise directed) have been placed in endowment funds whose income is also used for the support, increase and improvement of the collections over the long -term. Owing to the availability of annual donations and the income from endowments, the Library in 2002 was able to spend over $62,000 for the increase, maintenance, and improvement of library collections, over and above the amount annually budgeted for these purposes by the university central administration.

One of the hard realities of library management is that costs for collection-related improvement continue to spiral upward at a dismaying rate. During the past several years, costs for buying and replacing books and periodicals, repairing books and periodicals, cataloguing books, and acquiring new non-print resources increased at an annual rate of 10-20%. This is much faster than both the annual rate of inflation and the annual increase in the library budget by the University. It is at this key point, where the Library needs additional funds to meet increasing costs for collections development, that the contributions made by Friends play a most crucial role.

A second major purpose of Friends of the Library has been to contribute to the intellectual and educational life of the university community. During the past FY 2002 Friends conducted an active program of book talks, field trips, Celebrating Scholarship events, and other activities. Early in the year Ann Litt presented two well-received talks about her book A College Student’s Guide to Eating Well on Campus, one of which was attended by 40-50 students. The following February, Sheila Reindl gave an equally accessible and informative talk about her recent book, Sensing the Self: Women’s Recovery from Bulimia, which was also well received and well attended. Friends also sponsored and conducted a field trip to the Kreeger Art Museum on Foxhall Road; about twenty-five persons joined this tour. During Family Week in October, Friends also sponsored bus tours, led by librarian Jim Heintze, to significant sites in northwest Washington, including the former homes of Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon, the National Cathedral, the Naval Observatory, and the Washington Hebrew congregation.

Two Celebrating Scholarship events were held during the fall and spring terms to honor AU faculty who had recently published new books. Both events were very well attended and featured short presentations by faculty authors about their books followed by general discussion. During alumni weekend in the fall, Friends also sponsored a hands-on instructional session on “Navigating the World Wide Web” conducted by library staff member Mike Tosko. And early in the fall, Friends co-sponsored, with the Helen Kettler Society, a tea to honor several persons who had made bequests to the university in their wills. On this occasion, we honored Mr. Irwin Millard Heine for his gift of 400 American first editions to the Library’s Special Collections. Sadly, Mr. Heine died early this year.

Friends of the Library is guided by a conscientious and broadly representative Steering Committee of twenty members. During 2001-2002 your steering committee met at regular intervals for six meetings and held a planning and goals workshop early in January. Thanks to Gail Hanson who did so much to conceive, plan and mentor this workshop, it was enormously productive in clarifying our objectives, assessing our progress, and planning for the future.

Much of the planning and organization relating to our outreach and membership programs have been the work of two standing committees: Programs and Publicity chaired by librarian Jim Heintze and Membership and Development chaired by adjunct professor Don Hester. These committees and their chairs have contributed enormously to the progress of Friends, and I am deeply grateful to them. Thanks to their efforts, Friends now has a well developed, accessible web-site (http://www.library. american.edu/; click on ‘Friends of AU Library’) which displays schedules of upcoming events, reports to the membership, links to related web-sites for upcoming events (such as to book reviews for forthcoming book-talks and to locations for field trips) and provides an application form for membership. Another substantial asset is an in-house, action-forcing master calendar of annual events, key dates, dates of mailings, etc., which will help greatly to regularize the internal administration of Friends. Finally, we are continuing to make progress in the integrating and upgrading of our Benefactor data–base, which makes it possible to maintain exact records on all donations and donors.

The Steering Committee welcomed three new members: Duane Ekedahl, Chairman, Smith, Bucklin, and Associates; Kevin Malecek, President, Graduate Student Association; and Erin Taylor, President, Student Confederation. We look forward to their valuable contributions and participation in the coming year.

On a more nostalgic note, I have to record the departure of our invaluable Steering Committee member and secretary Heather Faust who will shortly leave the library to pursue a musical career. We will miss Heather’s generous and ready helpfulness and quiet efficiency, and we wish her the very best in her new career.

To sum up, I am happy to report that Friends of the Library has had another successful and productive year and that we should feel quiet pride in our accomplishments. Our hope remains that some day a Friend or potential Friend will feel able and moved to step forward with a large gift that will finance a much-needed annex to our present bulging library building. Until that happens, our task must be to continue marching forward on our present path.