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Dear Friends and Supporters,
 Stanford University Libraries’ broad suite of services and collections are provided not just in support of teaching, learning and research, but with the larger objective of inspiring thinking, broadening perspectives and encouraging engagement among all our library users. Thus, we are always particularly thrilled when students, faculty, or staff discover, or rediscover, materials from our collections, be they physical or virtual, that bring on such inspiration.
A wonderful example of this occurred last spring, when music lecturer Marie-Louise Catsalis discovered an incomplete manuscript of Francesco Durante’s Stabat Mater in SUL’s Department of Special Collections. Catsalis and her students decided to finish the work, editing it from the original notation. Then, this past February, her students performed the piece in Memorial Church, likely the first performance of this 300-year-old work (Catsalis, left, and her students rehearse the hymn in the photo below). SUL is very proud of the role we played in bringing this piece to light.
Professor Elaine Treharne is also bringing the past into the present. With the support of SUL’s Digital Library team, Treharne taught an online course on medieval manuscripts, using a manuscript viewer and other technology tools built by the Libraries. Over 3,000 students in 90 countries used these tools to view digitized versions of special collections materials from both Stanford and Cambridge University that, until recently, were accessible only to the select few that were able to visit campus reading rooms.
SUL is leveraging technology to bring inspiration, collections, and library services to wherever the student or faculty member needs us to be—whether in dorms, offices, or even abroad. Recently, the Libraries released EarthWorks (earthworks.stanford.edu), a new geospatial data discovery interface designed to simplify access to a variety of geospatial data. And SUL is committed not only to making this data accessible, but preserving it so that, as with Durante’s manuscript, that geospatial data remains accessible in 300 years. Many institutions and government agencies have started publishing their geospatial data online, but Stanford is one of the few institutions preserving that data for the long term.
These are just a few examples of the inspiring interactions that occur daily in the Stanford Libraries.
The breakneck pace of change in the information world is not slowing, and Stanford Libraries must continue to rapidly respond and support, and in some cases lead, so that the quality of scholarship and teaching continues at the rate of excellence that is expected of Stanford.
When you support Stanford Libraries, you are having a direct impact on student engagement and learning, as well as supporting the innovative approaches to teaching and research of Stanford faculty. The Libraries rely heavily on unrestricted annual gifts to fuel scholarship; I thank you most sincerely for considering a gift today.
Warm regards,
Michael A. Keller
University Librarian
P.S. Graduate student Mackenzie Cooley curated our current exhibition, Beasts & Books, which proposes that studying the role of animals in the history of Western culture can improve stewardship of the natural world today. The exhibition will remain on view in Green Library through August 22, 2015.
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