October 2006

Dear Members of the Wesleyan Community,

The Friends of the Wesleyan Library are pleased to be celebrating our second anniversary as a revitalized organization this fall.  As many of you know, the Friends have sponsored a number of well-attended and successful events.  Most recently, classics scholar David Sider spoke in September 2005 about books, book collectors, and libraries in Ancient Greece and Rome. In May 2006 the Friends held an extremely successful book sale, the first such sale in over 20 years at Wesleyan.

This fall, we welcomed speaker Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr. on the evening of Tuesday, October 24.  Mr. Kennedy is a well-regarded letterpress printer, papermaker and builder of artist's books.  He spoke to an enthusiastic crowd of students, faculty and community members, who filled the Smith Reading Room in Olin Library.  Many of Mr. Kennedy's works were on display in Special Collections during the evening.

You may be surprised that the Friends group is comprised of more than just people who belong to Wesleyan's faculty and staff.  The current Board of Directors, for example, reflects a diverse group that also includes the Wesleyan and Middletown library community, people with backgrounds in the book trade, current Wesleyan students, and those in the area who simply love libraries and their history.

 We are contacting you now to invite you to join or rejoin as a member of the Friends of the Wesleyan Library (if you have already done so, we give you our heartfelt thanks).  Annual membership starts at a modest $25, though membership is available at higher levels.  If you join the Friends at the $50, you will receive as a bonus a box of ten note cards, normally sold for $10, featuring photographs of some of the extraordinary books and manuscripts in Wesleyan's Special Collections & Archives.  Benefits to Friends members include receiving invitations to Friends-sponsored events, free special borrowing privileges at the Wesleyan Library, and a subscription to Check It Out, the illustrated library newsletter.

We urge you to join this worthwhile organization.  The resources at the Wesleyan University Library are deep and rich.  Your contribution would make it possible to fund special projects to preserve some of the more fragile holdings, catalog some of our "hidden" collections, and bring additional speakers to campus for the enrichment of the entire community.  We hope you will join us for our spring event (date to be announced) and thank you in advance for your financial support.

Postcards For Sale