Highlights:

The libraries launched the Perkins Renovation and Expansion Project which will include the construction of a new building. The new facility will be named the Bostock Library in honor of the family of former university trustee Roy J. Bostock and Merilee H. Bostock, a member of the Library Advisory Board.

The Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library received the American Newspaper Repository (ANR), a collection of 5,000 volumes of rare and historically significant 19th- and 20th-century American newspapers, many of which are available nowhere else in their original print form.

A volume from the American Newspaper Repository

Special programs or achievements:

The libraries' Center for Instructional Technology assisted the School of Nursing with its online distance education programs, which benefit nurses and nurse practitioners who live in rural North Carolina counties.

Kelly Cobb "attends class" from her home on a farm in rural Caswell County. Kelly plans to work in the county as a family nurse practitioner after she completes her Master of Science in Nursing degree.

The libraries participated with other university departments in the Duke Curriculum Project, an initiative intended to help improve the teaching of African-American and multicultural history in the Durham, NC, public schools.

Awards and recognitions:

The National Film Preservation Foundation has awarded a third grant to the Duke libraries to preserve films in the collection by North Carolina filmmaker H. Lee Waters.

Staff appointments:

• Michael Finigan, head, Access and Delivery Services, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Matthew Gardzina, academic technology consultant, Center for Instructional Technology, from Cary Academy
• Irene Lubasch-de-Munster, librarian for Iberia and Latin America, from Biblioteca Max von Buch, Universidad de San Andres, Buenos Aires, Argentina
• David Mitchell, university records manager, University Archives, from the North Carolina Office of Archives and History
• Cynthia Varkey, Web designer, Center for Instructional Technology, from the School of Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Statistics:

The Duke University Libraries have combined collections of 5.3 million books, more than 30,000 serials, and additional resources in an array of formats numbering almost 20 million items.

Major gifts:

Generous gifts in 2003 from Roy and Merilee Bostock, Pete and Ginny Nicholas and The Duke Endowment brought the university libraries' Campaign for Duke total to $49.5 million, well surpassing the $40 million goal.