The Thomson Gale Financial Development Award Recipient named

Contact: Cheryl Malden


Program Officer


312-280-3247

For Immediate


Release March 17, 2005

The Thomson Gale Financial Development Award Recipient named

CHICAGO - The Joseph Mark Lauinger Memorial Library at Georgetown University is the 2005 recipient of the Thomas Gale Financial Development Award presented by the American Library Association (ALA).

The award, $2,500 and a citation donated by Thomson Gale, is presented annually to a library organization that exhibited meritorious achievement in carrying out a library financial development project to secure new funding resources for a public or academic library.

The library’s fund raising project, Gallery Tour and Private Auction, was held at Sotheby’s headquarters. After touring the Old Master paintings on display, a Sotheby’s auctioneer conducted an auction of items donated by library board members and friends. Items donated included first editions, a gold coin, Civil War letters and a seven-day stay in a London apartment. The minimum bids ranged from $10.00 - $5,000.

A significant amount of the money raised came from the auctioneer’s skillful showcasing of the library’s Books Forever Endowment, which had a minimum bid of $1,789. The gift will be added to the Books Forever Fund, which generates enough interest to purchase a book a year for the library’s general collection. To mark that purchase, each year the library places a bookplate bearing their name in a book in its collection.

“The Georgetown University Library application was selected unanimously by the jury as a creative and cost effective manner in which to raise substantial funding for library support,” said Chair Lydia M. Acosta. “The library invested $2,500 in the fund raising project that raised a total of $30,000.”

The Thomson Gale Award will be presented Tuesday, June 28, during the ALA Annual Conference in Chicago.