Colorado State University Alumnus Donates $250,000 In Library Books
Thursday, September 11, 1997
FORT COLLINS--When Colorado State University alumnus George
Johnson heard of the devastating flood that hit campus July 28,
he immediately felt compelled to help.
Johnson's generosity--and the generosity of other
businesses, university libraries and Colorado State supporters--
will dramatically help the Morgan Library's efforts to replace
some of the estimated 425,000 books and journals damaged in the
flood.
Johnson, who with his father, Herbert M. Johnson, runs JAI
Press Inc. and Ablex Publishing Corp. in Greenwich, Conn., has
donated one of every book and journal the two companies publish
to help replenish some of the items damaged in the Morgan
Library's collection. In all, the company's gift includes about
3,000 book and journal titles worth an estimated $250,000.
Aside from his connection to Colorado State as a 1992
graduate, Johnston helps run his family's two publishing
companies, JAI Press and Ablex Publishing. Both are major
suppliers of research and reference books and journals to the
university. Many professors from Colorado State serve on the
editorial boards for serial publications, monographs, textbooks
and journals published by the companies, a relationship that made
a contribution to Morgan Library flood relief efforts even more
appropriate, Johnson said.
"As a company, our main source of business comes from
university libraries," Johnson said. "When we heard of the
disaster at Colorado State, we thought the best way to help as a
publisher was to give materials students and faculty need to be
successful in their academic pursuits."
JAI Press and Ablex Publishing Corp. are family-owned,
international publishers of books and journals at the post-
graduate and research level. University officials said the gift
is especially useful because it replaces books and journals in
many subject areas that were affected by the flood.
Book titles from many major subject areas were lost,
including business, sociology, science, education, engineering,
agriculture and veterinary medicine. The library also lost most
of its bound journals dating through 1994, including humanities,
social sciences and science technology. Books and journals
supporting 11 out of 13 programs of academic excellence at the
university were affected.
"Every book and journal damaged in the flood is undergoing
restoration, but it could take up to two years to get all those
materials back into the library's collection and there is no
guarantee that all of them will be salvageable," said Joel
Rutstein, collection development coordinator at Morgan Library.
"Our main objective is to get materials back on the shelves as
quickly as possible so students and faculty have direct access to
these resources. This gift from JAI and the support from other
university libraries, businesses and individuals gives the
library a major push toward that effort."
Donations of books in subject areas lost in the flood and
collections of journals that span the past 20 years are the most
urgent needs, Rutstein said. People interested in donating
materials may search a comprehensive list of titles at
http://www.coalliance.org, the home page for the Colorado
Alliance of Research Libraries.
One small shipment of books from JAI and Ablex has arrived
at AMICK Moving and Storage in Fort Collins this week and other
shipments are expected to arrive over the next several days.
AMICK's owner, Gordon Taylor, has donated warehouse space to
store the books until a permanent home at the library is
identified. AMICK also has donated the use of its employees to
unload the books and move them into storage.
Rutstein said Morgan Library has been overwhelmed with
offers of help from Colorado State supporters, other university
libraries and businesses interested in helping the library get
back on track. A man from Cheyenne, Wyo., recently drove down to
the library and donated his personal collection of "Architectural
Record" spanning 20 years. The University of Colorado-Boulder has
offered an extensive collection of bound journals it no longer
needs.
In addition, Hewlett Packard Co. has donated equipment worth
$28,000 for seven sites in the library to help library staff
process requests for journal articles. Other university libraries
will help Colorado State retrieve journal articles and fax them
to these and other remote locations on campus so they may be
forwarded to the professor or student who has made the request.
More than $20,000 has been donated to the Morgan Library
Flood Relief Fund, said Julie Karbula, director of development
for the university libraries. For more information about Morgan
Library flood relief efforts, call (970) 491-7530.
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