Celebrating National Philanthropy Day at the Library

Celebrated since the 1980s, November 15 is National Philanthropy Day, a day to recognize the contributions of philanthropy and the ways it can transform lives and communities around the world. Here are a few of the projects that philanthropic support at the Library has impacted over the last year: 

• Open Educational Resources (OER) Fellows program: Part of the Library’s mission is to make high-quality learning materials freely accessible to learners; this can reduce the financial burden of post-secondary education and provide resources tailored to the Waterloo and Canadian experience. This year the Library was able to launch a grant program to financially support faculty and instructors in the creation of OER. Three dynamic projects were selected that will further studies in the areas of politics, economics and public health, and provide students opportunities to contribute to the creation of these open resources. 
• Sharon Lamont Student Award: Students who have worked at the Library and support equity, diversity and inclusion initiatives through extracurricular involvement now have the opportunity to receive direct financial support through the creation of the Sharon Lamont Student Award, after Sharon, a longtime library employee, retired last year. 
• Special Collections & Archives Oral History Pilot Project: Oral histories allow us to gather, preserve, and interpret voices and memories of people, communities and participants of past events and can be a source of rich and important information when researching. Documenting life stories can also provide rich experiential learning opportunities for students. Special Collections & Archives is hoping this pilot project will be the start of a larger project to capture the lived experiences of those within our diverse community. 

Within the University of Waterloo Library the unique projects supported by philanthropy, like those highlighted above, reflect the diverse ways the Library serves the campus community. Thank you to each and every one of our supporters!