Gifts to Library recognize Judith Nadler’s vision

Director and University Librarian Judith Nadler’s leadership was recognized through an extraordinary set of gifts to the Library in her name, as announced at the Library’s November 30 Visiting Committee meeting.

Diana Hunt King, chair of the Visiting Committee, announced the endowment of the Judith Nadler Vision Fund for the Library, established with gifts from Visiting Committee members.

“Judi, while you were busy building the Mansueto Library, some of us were thinking of ways to honor you for your leadership, dedication, commitment, and, most of all, endurance, as you led that project and the renovation of the Special Collections Research Center,” explained King.  “We decided that a library fund existing in perpetuity and symbolizing the lasting impact of your foresight would be most appropriate.”

The fund’s purpose statement indicates that “[e]xpendable income from [the] Fund . . .shall be used by the Library, at the discretion of the Library Director and her successors, to develop and expand Library programs and services that enhance access to scholarly resources. The use of the expendable income should support the centrality of University of Chicago Library in addressing the future research needs of faculty, researchers, scholars and students. Priority should be given to purposes that otherwise would not be possible with existing resources.”

Nadler was visibly moved by the announcement of the Fund, which was established as a surprise for her through the leadership of King and Visiting Committee Life Member Preston Torbert, AM’70, PhD’73.  “I do not recall any such director’s vision fund being established at the Library before,” said Nadler.  “This is more than an act of generosity; it is a statement of trust.”

Following the announcement of the Nadler Vision Fund, Alice Schreyer took the podium to announce a gift from Professor Michael Allen to the Library in Nadler’s honor: the 1585 Antwerp edition of Flavius Vegetius Renatus’s  De re militari (Concerning Military Matters).  Allen, associate professor in the department of Classics and the College, and an associate in the department of history, donated this significant work on Roman military strategy and methods from his personal collection “in honour of Judith Nadler in recognition of her long, varied, and important contributions to the University through the Library.” 

“Previously, the Library lacked this edition of De re militari, with its marvelous woodcut illustrations,” said Schreyer, who is assistant director for special collections and preservation and director of the Special Collections Research Center.  “Researchers will now have an additional source to study the variations across editions.”

“I am deeply touched by Professor Allen’s extraordinary endorsement and delighted to be connected with the addition of this significant volume to our rare and special collections,” said Nadler.

Before the announcements of the gifts made to the Library in her honor, Nadler shared news of her own: earlier that day, she attended the Chicago Architecture Foundation’s Patron of the Year ceremony, where she accepted an award on behalf of the University of Chicago for the Joe and Rika Mansueto Library.

“November 30 was a wonderful day for the University of Chicago Library,” Nadler later remarked. ”Our accomplishments were celebrated, and we received valuable support that will help us to envision the future of groundbreaking research and transformative education, in perpetuity. I am deeply honored that alumni, faculty, and other friends of the Library chose to enable the Library’s work with their generosity.”