Welcome Call:
Porter Durham, a former member of the Board of Trustees at Johnson C. Smith University, has graciously underwrote the donation of 100 volumes of the Library of America series to the James B. Duke Memorial Library. The library staff was tasked with selecting the volumes that would best supplement the library collection and support the library’s and University’s mission.
The selection process was accomplished through browsing the Library of America (LOA) catalog and filtering by topic or genre; this view included both volumes in the canonical Library of America series as well as non-series titles and anthologies. The library staff reviewed a list of the entire Library of America series in chronological order by publication date, and were able to make their selections as a team.
The titles on the list were checked against our current library holdings to ensure that there was no unnecessary duplication, and the list was submitted to the Director of Library Services for final approval. Once approved, the LOA correspondent checked to make sure none of the titles were out of stock and placed the shipment order to have the books delivered to our library.
The books have been received, and are currently being cataloged. Bookplates recognizing Mr. Durham’s gift will be placed in the front of each volume, and we hope that the addition of these volumes brings great fulfillment to the readers at our library.
Here are a few photos of the books in our library as they are being processed by the library staff, and student workers.
