Endowment

Statement of Need:

Over the last several decades, Oklahoma has continued to decline in terms of educational funding, and this has profoundly affected all areas of education across the State of Oklahoma. In the area of academic libraries, this budgetary reduction can be seen most in travel allowances. Most institutions of higher education across the State of Oklahoma have had to cut funds, and most do not allow travel outside of the state. The Board of Directors of the Oklahoma Association of College and Research Libraries plans to counter this issue with the creation of an endowment that will not only allow OK-ACRL to continue to keep their in-state conferences affordable, but allow academic librarians from across the state to travel to out-of-state conferences.

Current Plans:

In 2022, the OK-ACRL Board of Directors made a decision to transfer $2000 from the general fund into a separate account to provide a foundation for this project. We have met with the Oklahoma City Community Foundation in regards to setting up the endowment, and in order to get their matching $15,000.00 donation, $25,000 must be raised and set aside for the sole purpose of the endowment. We would then have a sustainable amount of funds to be able to draw from to use for travel scholarships every year.

While plans are ongoing for fundraising activities, we plan to contact the following entities to help get us started:

OCALD – We hope academic library directors will be willing to donate a few hundred dollars each as an investment for their librarians to receive future scholarships.
Conference Vendors – We hope that vendors who attend major out-of-state conferences will be willing to make an investment to be able to get more Oklahoma Librarians to these conferences.
Professional Organizations – We hope those professional organizations will be willing to make an investment in order to have more Oklahoma Librarians participate in their conferences.

Endowment Committee:

Development Coordinator: Emrys Moreau

Reference and Instruction Librarian
Schusterman Library
University of Oklahoma-Tulsa
(405) 974-2883
Email Emrys

Additional Committee Members:

Ashley Bean – Tulsa Community College
Ona Britton-Spears – Connors State College
Anona Earls – University of Central Oklahoma
Elizabeth Jones – University of Central Oklahoma
Sara Mautino – Oklahoma State University
Andy Taylor – Tulsa Community College

How can you help?

We on the Board of Directors invite you to help support our cause by donating to the endowment. No donation is too large or small. If you would like to donate, please see a member of the Board of Directors, and we can take care of that for you or visit https://www.okacrl.org/endowment.

Donations are accepted via PayPal using the button at the top of the page.

You may also donate via cash or check through a Board member at the Conference or other event.

Board of Directors

You can also talk to your library director about supporting the OK-ACRL endowment. Remind them that our rates have stayed the same for the past 10 years, and we now include lunch in that cost. It is only through your support that we will be able to make this happen, and we greatly appreciate any help and support you can provide.

Thank you very much.