New and emerging technologies enable more sophisticated and effective tools for finding, accessing, and using information. Investments in library technology will help us increase the discoverability, accessibility, and visibility of library resources and services.
Your support of the Duke University Libraries will allow us to:
Increase Expertise in Emerging Technologies
The rapid pace of technological change has always presented libraries with new opportunities to serve our users. It also requires us to quickly learn and adapt to these emerging technologies. For example, artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the world, and university research and teaching must transform with it. Library staff are instrumental in helping faculty, students, and staff develop the skills to evaluate and use AI in efficient, ethical, and academically rigorous ways.
Support the Growth of Data Science at Duke
Our Center for Data and Visualization Sciences supports researchers in all of Duke’s schools, disciplines, and interdisciplinary initiatives, including the health sciences. Data management, visualization, publication, and preservation are areas of increasing importance, and these are areas where the Duke Libraries are a leader both on campus and nationally. But we must build additional capacity to meet the growing need for support, particularly among faculty and graduate students.
Increase Our Digital Footprint
Each year, we digitize thousands of items in our collections, including some of our most unique holdings, making them freely available to anyone online. Digitized collections connect both local and global researchers with our resources, while also keeping fragile historic materials accessible as they age. Investments in digital storage will allow us to share Duke’s world-class resources more widely and safeguard our collections for the future.
Enhance Library Spaces with Technology
Duke’s Libraries are not only sanctuaries of quiet study and scholarly discovery, but also places where students and faculty can engage with tools and technology that enrich their teaching and learning. The large-scale renovations and expansions of Perkins, Bostock, Rubenstein, and Lilly libraries have been wildly successful at drawing more people into our buildings. Now we need to increase the amount of technology available across these spaces for scanning, computing, presenting, recording, and engaging with library resources, to improve the user experience and bolster the level of service we provide to our community.
Did You Know?
Our collections are used by patrons both in-person and online. In one year, the Libraries circulate hundreds of thousands of print materials, while our users discover and access our electronic resources more than 26 million times.
Our partnership throughout the research lifecycle enhances the quality and impact of Duke scholarship. It’s vital that we expand programs and services in areas that align with Duke’s academic and research priorities.
Your support of the Duke University Libraries will allow us to:
Deepen Student Engagement in Research
The signature collections of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library provide rich and immersive research opportunities for students. These collections are a core part of Duke and thousands of undergraduates use our collections in class every year. Likewise, our partnerships with faculty in developing hands-on, research-intensive courses are vital as team-based and problem-focused teaching becomes more prevalent. The most noteworthy and distinctive research collections are those endowed by generous donors so that they can grow over time.
Empower Research in Science and Technology
The university’s investments in science and technology are strengthened by our vast collections and by specialized library staff who are well-versed in engineering, biology, chemistry, computer science, and statistics, among others. Likewise, we provide support for university priorities like the Duke Climate Commitment through our expertise in data and visualization sciences, public policy, and environmental sciences. Additional investments in priority areas such as these are needed to empower faculty research and prepare students to grapple with society’s most pressing problems.
Support Data-Driven Research
Building on the expertise and service we offer through our Center for Data and Visualization Sciences, the university recently launched the Compute and Data Services Alliance for Research (CDSA). Expanding services and capacity in this area will support the complete research lifecycle—from the early planning and management stages to final publication and archiving—thereby increasing the visibility, reproducibility, and impact of research conducted at Duke.
Open Access to Duke Research
At Duke, part of our mission is putting knowledge in the service of society. This means making the outcomes of Duke research available as broadly as possible, not hidden behind paywalls. Our expert staff in the ScholarWorks Center for Open Scholarship help faculty find and use open educational resources, advise on copyright issues, scholarly publishing, managing digital research projects, navigating research metrics, and more. Our ability to provide such a range of services depends on identifying additional resources for this area.
Did You Know?
Since we launched our open access repository for Duke research, we’ve made almost 27,000 Duke-authored articles and other publications freely available online, sharing them more broadly to increase the reach and impact of Duke research.
The role of the Duke University Libraries goes well beyond curated collections and support for teaching and learning. We serve as a gateway to Duke University for the local Durham community and beyond, sharing our unique resources and expertise with the world.
Your support of the Duke University Libraries will allow us to:
Support Public Engagement
Our freely available public programs, exhibitions, symposia, readings, and workshops activate our collections by sharing them with wider audiences, while deepening connections among Duke experts. Establishing permanent funding for public programming ensures the Libraries can continue to provide this essential service for our campus and our local community.
Provide Welcoming Spaces for Research, Education, and Collaboration
We strive to provide a welcoming environment for engaging programs, memorable teaching moments, and interdisciplinary collaboration. To meet Duke’s ambitious goals for the future, library spaces must be more accessible and up-to-date for our users. Establishing permanent funding will enable the Libraries to refresh study and collaboration areas, making our buildings more effective and inviting.
Bring History to Life
The Libraries are committed to documenting new or unheard-of stories from Duke, Durham, and the Carolinas, recognizing that community partnerships lead to a stronger future. Additional financial resources ensure that we can continue this work in a number of ways, from travel grants for scholars from around the world, exhibitions curated by community members, and events featuring notable speakers.
Showcase the Best of Duke
We host thousands of visitors each day, from students and faculty to alumni and members of the public. Most of them pass through our exhibit spaces, which highlight our collections and showcase the best of research and teaching at Duke. Further support will enhance our exhibits program by sustaining our audiovisual and digital technologies, providing internships, and expanding public events.
Did You Know?
The SNCC Digital Gateway—an innovative archival website developed and hosted by the Duke University Libraries in partnership with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) Legacy Project and Duke’s Center for Documentary Studies—attracts more than 250,000 visits per year and documents lessons learned by Civil Rights movement veterans and how their struggles are tied to those of today.
The Duke University Libraries are the learning labs that connect students with the exciting interdisciplinary work that defines a Duke education. From the first paper to the final thesis, we guide our students at every step of the way.
Your support of the Duke University Libraries will allow us to:
Provide Engagement from the Start
For first-year students, Duke’s academic environment can be daunting. With our Residence Hall Librarian Program, first-year students are connected to a librarian who introduces them to academic research. Through regular outreach, students learn about library services and resources while having a personal contact for questions or needs they may have in their crucial first year. Further support will allow our librarians to offer even more for first-year students, from specialized programming to enhanced instructional sessions.
Create Programs for Everyone
Enriching the student experience is at the forefront of what we do. As a shared space, we are uniquely able to bring students together to learn, share, and engage with experts. We partner with faculty to offer learning opportunities such as Archives Alive and Archival Expeditions, and we employ new technologies to enhance student work with rare materials. Establishing permanent funding for student-centered programs will allow us to better support the Duke experience through open houses, wellness events, panel discussions, and so much more.
Celebrate the First-Generation Experience
Through our Summer Research Fellowship Program, we support first-generation and lower-income undergraduate students working on research projects during the summer. Offering financial support as well as mentorship, students are better able to navigate the research process, explore interests, and build skills necessary to their academic and professional careers. Establishing permanent funding will ensure that students receive the support they need to fully engage with our collections and their research.
Offer a Home Away from Home
Thanks to our growing online presence, the Libraries can be anywhere at any time. But our physical spaces are especially important for students who want a welcoming and comfortable place to study, learn, and socialize. We continue to engage with student feedback and update our buildings to best fit their evolving needs, from providing additional individual study areas to bringing more classes into our spaces. Investments in enhancing and refreshing our buildings will ensure that the Libraries continue to offer the best possible student experience for years to come.
Did You Know?
Every year, our staff offer hundreds of workshops, seminars, and instruction sessions to students across all disciplines at Duke. More than a third of all Duke undergraduates have interacted with rare materials from the Rubenstein Library, and hundreds of Duke graduate students attend our Responsible Conduct of Research workshops every year.
The Duke University Libraries are the intellectual cornerstone of the university, with accomplished specialists well-versed in their particular fields. It is vital for our staff to remain a step ahead to meet the demands of the ever-changing information and technology landscape.
Your support of the Duke University Libraries will allow us to:
Train Librarians for Duke’s Second Century
Librarianship has changed dramatically in the digital age. It is critical for today’s librarians to have deep subject matter expertise and advanced training in areas such as data science and the ethical uses of artificial intelligence. Our staff contribute to class curricula and partner with faculty and students in their research endeavors. Position endowments will allow us to retain and recruit leading experts in current and emerging fields and will ensure that we remain a beacon of innovation and talent among our peers.
Mentor Early Career Residents
Launched in 2023, our three-year residency program for early career librarians provides one-on-one mentorship and professional development opportunities for two recent library school graduates. These residents work in specialized fields that align with our strategic plan and gain valuable experience as librarians at a top-tier academic research library. Permanent funding will ensure that we continue in our mission to mentor and retain the next generation of library experts.
Prioritize Professional Development
Our ability to deliver a wide and valued range of library services depends foremost on our people. It is crucial for us to prioritize and support professional development opportunities for all library employees, acknowledging that a healthy work environment can foster a deep sense of commitment, personal meaning, and pride. Permanent funding is necessary to ensure that our staff have what they need to grow and succeed in their professions.
Did You Know?
The Duke University Libraries have nearly 200 full-time staff members across five libraries and the Library Service Center, our climate-controlled offsite storage facility. Our librarians assist students and faculty from more than 100 undergraduate majors and more than 80 graduate programs, resulting in more than 7,000 research consultations with users each year.
The Duke University Libraries advance the research, teaching, and public service mission of the entire university. Your gift to the Libraries Annual Fund makes our vision for the future possible. With your generosity, we can say yes to doing more for every student, faculty, and staff member at Duke.
Gifts to the Libraries Annual Fund support initiatives like:
Distinctive Collections
Our core purpose is to provide access to trustworthy research materials. Donors to the Libraries Annual Fund support our mission to grow and preserve our collections with an eye toward the future of research at Duke. As we build, we are working hard to develop a more diverse collection, emphasizing interdisciplinary fields like climate studies, global health, biomedical engineering, digital humanities, and ethics. We also support Duke as a global institution, growing our collection of foreign language materials across all disciplines.
Knowledgeable Staff
Library staff represent a wide range of expertise, fostering scholarship and collaboration across campus. Your support of the Libraries Annual Fund better equips them for what comes next. To stay ahead in our ever-changing world, it is essential for us to prioritize the advanced training our staff needs to become experts in emerging fields like artificial intelligence and quantum computing, as we anticipate an expanded focus on these topics at Duke.
Essential Collaborations
We partner with faculty and staff from across the university, offering guidance and direction for teaching and research, strategies for visualizing data, and options for innovative digital publishing. In one year, we taught over 300 classes to students in every school at Duke, offered research and data consultations to thousands of our users, and connected undergraduate students to rare, primary materials in hands-on instruction sessions.
Did You Know?
A gift to the Libraries Annual Fund directly impacts every student, faculty, and staff member at Duke. With our dedicated staff, exceptional collections, and a welcoming environment designed to ensure that our users have what they need to thrive, the Duke University Libraries advance the outrageous ambitions of our entire
campus community.
Collections are our original purpose, the foundation on which everything we do is built. Our diverse and distinctive library collections contribute to exceptional student experiences and fuel the transformative research that comes out of Duke. We must continue to assemble and provide access to collections that both strengthen curricular connections and provide unique opportunities for life-changing research.
Your support of the Duke University Libraries will allow us to:
Build and Preserve the Scholarly Record
Library collections follow the course of scholarship. Our collections must grow alongside Duke’s extensive research and teaching needs. While print is still thriving, the demand for access to materials in digital format is increasing. At the same time, the cost of subscriptions outpaces inflation each year. Journal subscriptions can have an annual cost higher than the price of a new car. These complex resources are made accessible by librarians and curators who are experts in their fields, providing specialized support to students and faculty, often working alongside them to solve their most difficult problems.
Represent the Diversity of Cultures at Home and Around the World
In a complex world, a world-class university library must offer a wide breadth and depth of voices. As we move into Duke’s second century, our collections must contribute to a representation of human history that is inclusive and comprehensive in scope. The David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library’s collections have strength in African American history and culture, women’s history, LGBTQ+ history, grassroots organizing, the history and culture of the U.S. South, modern and contemporary Chinese history, Japanese history and culture, and much, much more. Community collaborations demonstrate our ability to work with local partners to empower organizations to preserve their history and tell their own stories. Alongside other Durham and North Carolina repositories, we are committed to preserving and sharing the diverse histories of our local communities, the Carolinas, and the southeastern United States.
Did You Know?
The Duke University Libraries hold more than 8 million volumes in our collections, representing almost 450 different languages. This includes more than 65,000 linear feet of manuscript and archival material (more than 300 Duke Chapels stacked on top of each other!).
On February 24, 2025, Duke University launched the most significant fundraising and engagement campaign in its history. MADE FOR THIS: The Duke Campaign will engage alumni and friends of the university to accelerate progress in areas where Duke can make the greatest difference for the world—advancing innovation through science and technology, creating a more sustainable planet, shaping students as next-generation leaders, and advancing healthcare to help communities thrive.
The comprehensive campaign will support key priorities across the university, with a goal of raising $125 million for the Duke University Libraries.
This undertaking comes at a momentous time, as the promise of higher education in America is under threat, and new forms of technology are setting off a revolution no less significant than the one Gutenberg started over five centuries ago. The explosive growth of online information and artificial intelligence has enabled knowledge to spread faster and more easily than ever. But it has also created an environment for disinformation and distortion, eroding trust in what we see and hear.
In this disorienting world, libraries have a vital role to play. It’s crucial that we remain a trusted source of sound research and guidance, prioritizing people, deepened collaborations, and a culture that is truly inclusive. The challenges facing us are worldwide. But as one of the world’s great libraries, we are determined to play our part.
We can’t do it alone. We rely on a community of donors who generously support our work. This campaign brings with it new opportunities to collaborate on timely, transformative projects that will not simply enable the best teaching and research at Duke, but amplify and showcase it, increasing its impact on the world and countless individual lives.
With your help in achieving our goal of $125 million, we can do just that. Here’s a look at how the Duke University Libraries are made for this moment.
Campaign Priorities
Click on each heading for more details on each priority.
For nearly half a century, Mark Kearney T’70 has donated money annually to the Duke University Libraries. The longest-running library donor, Kearney said that his support reflects his gratitude for the help he received from library staff years ago as well as his appreciation of the continued importance of the Libraries.
“I believed in the work that I did at the library, and I have continued to believe in the work that the Libraries do,” said Kearney. “Contributing money there yearly made sense to me.”
Kearney says that while the Duke Libraries didn’t “save him from starvation” during his time as a history graduate student, they did keep him from “living in an apartment where roach bait would have been a monthly item on my shopping list.” Kearney held a part-time job at the Libraries during his studies when his fellowship permitted it. But as time progressed, a perfect storm of challenges, including the Vietnam War draft and the Soviet invasion of Prague, became obstacles in his educational and career paths.
Along came Elvin Stroud, Kearney’s supervisor in his part-time job who eventually became Duke’s University Librarian. Knowing that Kearney needed a job to support himself while working on his doctorate, Stroud invited him to return to the stacks full-time.
Soon after Perkins Library was built, Kearney supervised undergraduate students who helped move hundreds of thousands of books into the new library building. In addition to supervising undergraduate employees, Kearney played a key role in creating a system to handle the flood of books students typically returned after the winter holidays.
Elvin Stroud, Kearney’s former supervisor (standing on desk), gives instructions to Duke fraternity members, who helped move approximately 1,250,000 books into Perkins Library after it was built in 1969 (Duke University Archives).
He married in spring 1972 and, after working on his dissertation for another year, Kearney decided to change careers and became an information technology specialist at the Social Security Administration. In his first few years there, Kearney maintained a loose connection with Duke. Then a notice in the Duke Libraries magazine about an upcoming Friends of the Library dinner caught his eye.
“By that time, my wife and I were comfortable, and I had a little extra money,” he said. “I noticed that it was $1,000 for a lifetime membership in the Friends and I thought, ‘Duke did right by me; I’ll repay the favor.’”
After making that first donation and attending the annual Friends dinner, Kearney decided to make both the donation and dinner attendance yearly habits. “I was glad contribute to something that wasn’t a necessity, and I was glad to help Duke Libraries,” he said.
In the late 1980s, Stroud again connected Kearney to the Libraries, nominating him to serve on the Friends of the Libraries governing board on which Kearney ultimately served three terms.
Kearney encourages others to support the Libraries and notes how well run they have been throughout their existence. “It’s important to support the Libraries because, in a broad sense, they embody the commitment of the Duke Endowment to education,” he said. “And giving is just a good thing to do that makes you feel good when you do it.”
Open Monograph Award Expands Access to Duke Faculty Research
A lavishly illustrated new book about the evolution of Japanese graphic design in advertising is the latest recipient of the Duke Open Monograph Award, funded by the Duke University Libraries to facilitate greater access to Duke faculty scholarship through open access publishing.
In The Fine Art of Persuasion: Corporate Advertising Design, Nation, and Empire in Modern Japan (Duke University Press, 2025), Gennifer Weisenfeld, the Walter H. Annenberg Distinguished Professor of Art and Art History at Duke, tells the story of how modern corporations and consumer capitalism transformed Japan’s visual culture from the early 1900s through the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, a pivotal design event that rebranded Japan on the world stage.
In April, the Libraries hosted a talk with Professor Weisenfeld to celebrate the launch of the book, which is available as a physical
monograph but also as a free open access ebook.
Many academic monographs in the humanities and social sciences see limited distribution—a print run of only a few hundred copies, and electronic access (if any) locked behind a paywall. The Duke Open Monograph Award aims to flip that traditional publishing model by providing $15,000 per book—paid to a participating university press on the author’s behalf—to make a digital copy freely available online under a Creative Commons license.
“Academic books tend to be expensive, especially books in art history that have higher production value with extensive illustrations,” said Weisenfeld about the experience of publishing her book open access. “This can become a cost barrier for access. I know [this support] will propel the book forward to reach a much broader audience over the course of its lifetime. This means a lot to me and will definitely increase the impact of my scholarship among a national and global readership, particularly students.”
We’ve Got News for Duke
Here’s a headline number for you: 9,886.
That’s how many Duke students and employees have signed up for a free all-access subscription to the New York Times online, courtesy of the Duke Libraries, since we began offering the service at the start of this year.
The Libraries’ all-access subscription is only available to current Duke students, faculty, and staff (NetID required) and includes everything the site offers—including Games (Wordle, Spelling Bee and Crossword), Cooking, Wirecutter, The Athletic, and more than twenty subscriber newsletters.
The service has been particularly popular with students, who appreciate the personal financial savings as well as the in-depth reporting. Initial usage stats show that, for the spring 2025 semester alone, Duke users viewed some 599,137 articles, 64,632 Cooking recipes, 17,498 Wirecutter reviews, and played 427,337 games.
At the same time, we also introduced free access to the Atlantic online this year, including all the latest articles, the Atlantic Archive, podcasts, the crossword, and more. We regularly receive requests for the Atlantic for personal and classroom use and are pleased to make it available to the Duke community. The magazine has a long, distinguished history as a cultural reporter and opinion-maker since its start in 1857. Since we rolled out the new Atlantic access, some 2,448 Duke users have taken advantage of it.
“The library is here to provide people access to information, and this is a great way to be able to provide that,” said Arianne Hartsell-Gundy, Librarian for Literature, who has helped to promote the new all-access subscriptions to Duke students and faculty. “We’re also thrilled to be able to give people more opportunities to read and have access to different viewpoints.”
Book on Cross-Border Gun Trafficking Wins Méndez Award
A new book about how American firearms drive violence in Mexico is this year’s winner of the Juan E. Méndez Book Award for Human Rights in Latin America. The Rubenstein Library’s Human Rights Archive is a co-sponsor of the award.
In the book, anthropologist Ieva Jusionyte follows the illicit trade in firearms that circulate between the U.S. and Mexico. Drawing on the author’s experience as a former paramedic who treated victims of gun violence, Exit Wounds: How America’s Guns Fuel Violence Across the Border (University of California Press, 2024) is both a cultural history of guns and an analysis of the politics and economics that perpetuate a vicious circle of violence.
Jusionyte visited Duke in March to accept the award and talk about the book. “I wrote Exit Wounds because I wanted to draw attention to how our guns are implicated in human rights violations in Mexico and beyond,” Jusionyte said. “I hope that the book will make us realize that migrants and refugees who seek safety on this side of the border do so because they are fleeing threats enforced with weapons that come from the United States. Especially in these times, when anti-immigrant rhetoric and calls for border walls are getting louder again, we need to accept our responsibility for the mess we have caused abroad by caring more about guns than about people they wound.”
First awarded in 2008, the Méndez Human Rights Book Award honors the best current nonfiction book published in English on human rights, democracy, and social justice in contemporary Latin America. The books are evaluated by a panel of expert judges drawn from academia, journalism, human rights, and public policy circles.
Bringing History’s Female Philosophers to the Forefront
Here’s a question: Who is the most famous female philosopher you can think of?
Can you think of any? If you answered no, you’re not alone. For a long time, philosophy has had an image problem. The philosophical canon most of us are exposed to is dominated by dead white males.
That’s a real issue, especially if you’re a working philosopher today—someone who cares about the life of the mind and wants to show students how it’s relevant to their lives. Someone like Andrew Janiak, Professor of Philosophy at Duke.
A decade ago, Professor Janiak approached the Duke University Libraries with an idea. He wanted more women and under-represented voices being taught in philosophy classes. How else were students today supposed to see themselves in the material?
Janiak enlisted the help of library colleagues Liz Milewicz (Director of the ScholarWorks Center for Open Scholarship), Will Shaw (Digital Humanities Consultant), and Cheryl Thomas (Librarian for Philosophy and Religious Studies). Working together, they came up with a plan. They would build an open-source website to provide resources for philosophy teachers, spotlighting female philosophers whose historical contributions have either been buried over time or never properly recognized at all. It was called Project Vox, because it gave marginalized voices a place to be heard.
Margaret Cavendish
The strategy worked. For ten years now, Project Vox has provided a platform for students across Duke— in philosophy but also economics, political science, history, and the arts—to conduct and publish original research on the Project Vox website, an open-access resource that has fueled a renaissance among philosophy scholars around the world.
The site has recorded 300,000 page views from 180,000 unique users in 190 countries. More than 100 students, faculty, and researchers have been a part of its development, and it has been featured in such outlets as the Atlantic, Washington Post, and London Times. In the process, it has brought to light the work of female thinkers like Emilie Du Chatelet, Margaret Cavendish (pictured here) and Tullia d’Aragona. The site is hosted by the Duke University Libraries.
Project Vox celebrated its tenth anniversary in February with a free symposium in Bostock Library that drew scholars from around the country. The next challenge the Project Vox team hopes to tackle, according to Professor Janiak, is correcting inaccuracies about philosophers on Wikipedia, usually the first place people look for information on historical figures. For many female philosophers, Wikipedia’s info is often incorrect or incomplete.
“That portrayal of an historically neglected figure is crucial, and often misleading at best,” Janiak says. “That misleading information or bias can have a lasting impact. So we’re trying to help improve that.”
Congrats to Our Student Book Collectors!
For nearly seventy-five years, we’ve sponsored a book collecting contest to encourage Duke students to build their own personal libraries. Anyone may enter, and you don’t have to be a serious “collector” to win. Collections are judged on adherence to a unifying theme, not rarity or monetary value.
We are pleased to announce this year’s winners of the Andrew T. Nadell Prize for Book Collecting. In addition to cash prizes, all winners receive a Grolier Club book of their choice, a three-year membership in the Bibliographical Society of America, and a year’s membership in the Book Club of California.
Undergraduate Category
1ST PLACE: Phoebe Trask for “Bandes Dessinées from a French Childhood: A Colorful Window into French History, Politics, and Culture”
2ND PLACE: Sophia Cox for “The Natural World: The Line Between Science and Magic and Between the Known and the Unknown”
Graduate Category
1ST PLACE (TIE): Peter de Guzman for “What Is His Identity?: Building a Filipino American Library”
1ST PLACE (TIE): Merlin Ganzevoort for “From Parisian Gardens to Treasure Island: Nineteenth Century and Early Twentieth Century Travel and Adventure Literature”
2ND PLACE: Daniel Orr for “Greek and Latin Student Commentaries 1908–2021”
The Nadell Prize is named for Dr. Andrew T. Nadell M’74, who began collecting rare books when he was a student at Duke. He credits his interest in book collecting to two of his Duke mentors, G. S. T. Cavanagh (Professor of Medical Bibliography) and Gert Brieger (Professor of the History of Medicine).
Celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander Connections at Duke
A new mural in Perkins Library celebrates the international diversity of Duke’s workforce, which is almost as diverse as the student body itself, drawn from nations and cultures around the world.
The mural—made up of more than 300 wooden blocks and measuring 4 feet by 6 feet—was created by the Duke Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Affinity Group and artist Brandon Johnson. It depicts the affinity group’s logo: a lotus flower and the Polynesian wave tattoo symbol to represent Asian and Pacific Island cultures.
The mural has been on exhibit at Duke University Hospitals since 2024 and will be on display on the second floor of Perkins Library for the next two years.
Duke Marine Lab Library to Close
First opened in 1976 and named in honor of the Duke Marine Lab’s founding director, the Pearse Memorial Library at the Duke Marine Lab is slated to close after nearly fifty years in operation, effective July 1, 2025.
The closure is part of a strategy to “align library services with research and teaching needs around climate and sustainability at Duke–a strategy that has sadly been accelerated by the expected financial impacts on the university of reduced federal research funding,” wrote University Librarian Joseph A. Salem, Jr., in a message explaining the decision to Marine Lab faculty, students, and staff.
The Pearse Memorial Library at the Duke Marine Lab is scheduled to close July 1, 2025.
Although the physical library will close, there will be no interruption or reduction in the essential library services and resources the Marine Lab community relies on, including book delivery, research consultations, research instruction and workshops, and library outreach and engagement.
Jodi Psoter, Head of the Marine Lab Library and Librarian for Marine Sciences, will transition into a new role as Climate & Sustainability Strategist and Librarian for Marine Science and Conservation. Psoter will continue to live and work in Beaufort, North Carolina, and will regularly visit the Durham campus, focusing on supporting interdisciplinary teaching and research on climate and sustainability across the university.
Conversations were already underway between the Marine Lab and library leadership about the future of the space, as in-person usage has declined over time. While the closure was likely to happen eventually, this year’s unprecedented cutbacks in federal research support hastened the transition.
Nevertheless, the decision “enables us to advance the goals of the Duke Climate Commitment and Duke Libraries’ strategic plan, while at the same time realizing cost savings that are unfortunately necessary for the university,” said Salem.
Honoring Our All-Stars
Each year, we celebrate our extraordinary library staff with the DULies. Bigger than the Oscars, more nail-biting than the Final Four, the DULies recognize extraordinary job performance that far exceeds individual goals or expectations.
Pictured here are this year’s awardees, all of whom go above and beyond for the Duke University Libraries (left to right): Henry Hebert, Conservator for Special Collections, winner of the Mentoring Award; Antha Marshall, Serials Management Assistant Sr., winner of the Sara Seten Berghausen Equity & Inclusion Award; Erin Hammeke, Senior Conservator for Special Collections, winner of the Great Idea Award; and Erin Nettifee, IT Business Analyst, winner of the Florence Blakely Collaboration Award. Congratulations to them all!
A Little Library 101 with the Littlest Blue Devil
Every year, the Association of Research Libraries hosts the ARLIES Film Festival, highlighting videos that promote the use of libraries, their spaces, services, collections, and expertise.
We’re proud to announce that our video How to Find a Book in the Stacks won the “Best How-To/Instructional Film” category this year!
The two-minute video follows along with the “Littlest Blue Devil” as he finds a book in our online catalog and uses the call number to track it down and check it out. That may seem like pretty basic library 101 stuff, but it’s one of the most frequently asked questions our librarians get from today’s Duke undergrads, many of whom are experts at online searching but aren’t as practiced at “old school” research skills like reading a Library of Congress call number.
The video has been viewed thousands of times across Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube and is being used in library orientation sessions. It’s a good reminder that even at top-ranked universities like Duke, students often need help getting up to speed on college-level research. That’s why they have friendly Duke librarians to help them find what they’re looking for.
Did You Know?
Our partnership throughout the research lifecycle enhances the quality and impact of Duke scholarship. It’s vital that we expand programs and services in areas that align with Duke’s academic and research priorities.
Did You Know?
Did You Know?
Did You Know?
The Duke University Libraries are the intellectual cornerstone of the university, with accomplished specialists well-versed in their particular fields. It is vital for our staff to remain a step ahead to meet the demands of the ever-changing information and technology landscape.
Did You Know?
The Duke University Libraries advance the research, teaching, and public service mission of the entire university. Your gift to the Libraries Annual Fund makes our vision for the future possible. With your generosity, we can say yes to doing more for every student, faculty, and staff member at Duke.
Did You Know?
Did You Know?
On February 24, 2025, Duke University launched the most significant fundraising and engagement campaign in its history. MADE FOR THIS: The Duke Campaign will engage alumni and friends of the university to accelerate progress in areas where Duke can make the greatest difference for the world—advancing innovation through science and technology, creating a more sustainable planet, shaping students as next-generation leaders, and advancing healthcare to help communities thrive.
For nearly half a century, Mark Kearney T’70 has donated money annually to the Duke University Libraries. The longest-running library donor, Kearney said that his support reflects his gratitude for the help he received from library staff years ago as well as his appreciation of the continued importance of the Libraries.
In The Fine Art of Persuasion: Corporate Advertising Design, Nation, and Empire in Modern Japan (Duke University Press, 2025), Gennifer Weisenfeld, the Walter H. Annenberg Distinguished Professor of Art and Art History at Duke, tells the story of how modern corporations and consumer capitalism transformed Japan’s visual culture from the early 1900s through the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, a pivotal design event that rebranded Japan on the world stage.
In the book, anthropologist Ieva Jusionyte follows the illicit trade in firearms that circulate between the U.S. and Mexico. Drawing on the author’s experience as a former paramedic who treated victims of gun violence, Exit Wounds: How America’s Guns Fuel Violence Across the Border (University of California Press, 2024) is both a cultural history of guns and an analysis of the politics and economics that perpetuate a vicious circle of violence.
