University Libraries

Baylor University Libraries set an ambitious goal to raise $5 million as part of the Give Light Campaign in order to advance the priorities and areas of growth highlighted within Illuminate, the University Strategic Plan.

During the Give Light Campaign, the University Libraries’ staff will focus their fundraising efforts in the following priority areas:

• Capital enhancements to improve the Libraries’ ability to foster engagement with students and meet the needs of researchers both through digital and print collections.
• Endowment and programmatic support to enhance faculty and student access to collections opportunities for Baylor’s students.

The following are the University Libraries’ highest priority fundraising projects that are being highlighted in the current phase of the Give Light Campaign. The Libraries will bring forward other opportunities for the Baylor Family to support their work. 

To learn more about immediate needs within Baylor University Libraries, click here.

Renovations to Increase Collaboration: $7 million

In 2019, Moody Memorial Library celebrated 50 years of service to the faculty and students of Baylor University. As we look to the next 50 years, the Library is seeking support to renovate Moody’s first floor, providing flexible study spaces for students that better complement the collaborative, technology-rich learning environments of today and tomorrow.

Expanding Facilities: $4 million

With advances in technology and the changing study habits and needs of faculty and staff, Baylor Libraries has assessed its collection and space needs and identified the addition of a secure storage facility as a priority need. The addition of a secure storage facility will allow the Libraries to ensure its collections are accessible by faculty and students while creating new spaces within the Libraries for collaborative learning and study spaces for students and faculty alike.

Black Gospel Music Preservation Program: $1 million

With the recordings rapidly disappearing and in need of preservation, the Black Gospel Music Preservation Program is creating a digital audio archive that will draw numerous researchers to Baylor University. The ultimate goal of the project is to preserve and store a digital copy of the audio long-term and to provide standards-based discovery tools through an online interface into a full catalog of materials, along with samples of all tracks from the audio archive.

Improving and Expanding Access: $1.25 million

Baylor Libraries is seeking support for the Summer Teaching Fellows Program, which provides select Baylor faculty with funding to conduct their summer research using the University Libraries’ collections. The fellowships promote use and access to the Libraries’ collections, helping faculty to integrate our special collections into class instruction, opening the resources further to students. Select undergraduate and graduate students are also awarded paid internships to work with special collections and further research efforts within the Libraries. The Libraries seek endowment support to provide permanent, sustained funding for the fellows programs, allowing the Libraries to expand the program and sustain its growth.