Responses to Query on Library Overheads on Endowments
University
Library overhead on endowments
British Columbia (Peter Ward)
No success. We’ve discussed the idea internally but haven’t yet approached the senior admin.
Apparently we live in hope.
California at Davis (Marilyn
Sharrow)
We pay the gift fee to University Relations at 6% on cash gifts directed to the Library per PPM
Section 260-50 (http://manuals.ucdavis.edu/ppm/260/260-50.htm). We get back 4%
for fund raising purposes.
The Short Term Investment Pool (STIP) is the locally held funds that earn a miniscule amount of
interest on the cash corpus in STIP accounts that the Library "owns". The STIP interest goes
back into the account for current use.
Duke (Deborah Jakubs)
Duke University Libraries do not have this arrangement re: non-library endowments.
University of Illinois at Chicago
(Marguerite Zappa)
Johns Hopkins University does have such an arrangement and has a written policy. When Patrick
“Pat” O’Neall was the DOD for the Sheridan Libraries there he shared the policy and the
arrangement at a ALADN meeting in March 2004. In his presentation at the time Endowed
Chairs at JHU were funded by $2M gifts and the Library received 12.5% or $250K for each chair.
I still have a copy of Pat’s presentation and I can bring it with me to DORAI this year, if folks
who have not seen it wish to see it. I believe that Pat did not originate the policy; he inherited it.
My Dean at Carnegie Mellon told me that at JHU, the Libraries are not funded directly from
central admin. They are funded by the separate colleges. I believe that colleges/schools are
assessed an amount each year by the central admin of how much the Libraries will receive from
each college/school.
When I was at Carnegie Mellon U., CMU, in Pgh, PA my dean discussed this idea with the
Provost and the VP of Development who both rejected the idea. At CMU, the Libraries are
funded by the central admin.
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Also at ALADN 2005, Dr. Derrie Perez, Dean of Libraries, University of South Fl announced that
her university has a policy with the following practice. Any professorship/chair that is
established, the 1st year of earned income is given to the Library to set up an endowment in the
subject area of the professorship/chair. After the first year, earned income is given in perpetuity
to the dept/professor/chair holder, etc.
A sub-committee within the ALADN group wrote up a position paper recommending the JHU
position and it is probably on the ALADN archive site. The sub committee was lead by Mary
Ann Sheilds, DOD for the U. Library of IN U/Purdue U., IUPUI, located in Indianapolis, IN.
Johns Hopkins (Joshua D. Else)
All, this is a topic that I would be happy to discuss at the Doral meeting. It is too much to try to
address in an email. If there are individuals who will not be attending and would like more
information, please feel free to contact me. Currently, we are reviewing the policy. There have
been some benefits and some challenges.
Johns Hopkins (Winston Tabb)
I think Shirley Baker asked a similar question recently but it may have been to a limited group of
ARL directors whom she thought already had such arrangements.
At JHU I was very fortunate to inherit a "tradition" whereby a set % of the endowment for each
new chair comes to the library. At present we ask $2.5M from a donor for a named chair; of that
$300,000 comes to the library. With the advent of several new deans the rationale for such a
distribution has come under renewed questioning. I frankly am having trouble justifying this split
across the board - particularly in cases where the endowment comes to support an existing
professor, and I can’t logically argue that the library needs to beef up its collection to support
him/her.
On the other hand there have been two cases since I arrived at JHU where the husband and wife
donors were really thrilled - and perhaps even compelled finally to make the plunge and pledgeto know that their $2.5M would benefit both the professor and library collections.
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University
Library overhead on endowments
McGill (Janine Schmidt)
Alas no. We just receive the interest on the library endowments.
Michigan State (Diane Mattick)
I am very interested in knowing about this as well. We have been having conversations about this
lately at MSU. FYI, my notes from last year’s meeting indicate two universities that participate
in DORAL reported that a percentage (5-10%) of the cost to endow a chair was allocated to
libraries.
New Brunswick (John Teskey)
I will be interested to know who is getting such favorable consideration. At UNB development
gets 10% of the initial gift. There is no charge against earned income after the first year.
Northwestern (Sarah Pritchard) Do you mean non-library endowments that are for the support of specific faculty chairs/fields? I
have not been successful in getting this commitment at any of the three libraries where I have
been a director. Whether the university is very well-endowed or not, the attitudes seem similar in
that this is perceived as a "grab" (a threat to control and/or funding for other deans, department
chairs, and development officers), and the library is told to MYOB. Even when it is clear that we
may not be able to attract the right level of faculty candidates because the corresponding research
resources are so poor. This topic comes up fairly often on the listservs of the library development
people. I know that they have accomplished this sort of earmark in recent years at Johns Hopkins
and at the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign, but few if any other institutions.
Notre Dame (Katharina J.
Blackstead)
I have been working and working and working on this, to no avail. We are just not there yet.
Best to everyone.
Ottawa (Leslie Weir)
We have not at University of Ottawa, but the idea intrigues me and so I am very interested in the
results of your query.
June 2008
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