Posted January 14, 2005.

Anonymous Donor Grants $1 Million to Five Public Libraries

Thanks to the generosity of an anonymous woman in Clark County, Indiana, the Louisville (Ky.) Free Public Library and four libraries in southern Indiana will divide $1 million bequeathed to them in a charitable trust. The directors of the four Indiana libraries believe the donations are the largest ever given to them by an individual.

Laura Hansen Dean, CEO of the Community Foundation of Southern Indiana that administers the trust, said in the January 12 Louisville Courier-Journal that the same donor, who died last spring, had given $200,000 in additional gifts to groups in southern Indiana since the mid-1990s.

Bill Bolte, director of the Jeffersonville Township Public Library, said the woman had previously given smaller gifts to the library for books on tape and large-print titles. He told the newspaper that the library was keeping its share, $307,000, in an interest-bearing account until his board decided how to use it. The other libraries included in the gift are the Charlestown–Clark County Public Library, the New Albany–Floyd County Public Library, and the Madison–Jefferson County Public Library.

Posted January 14, 2005.