Special Collections Division the University of Texas at Arlington Libraries Vol. XII * No. 1 * Spring 1998

Friends Celebrate Ten Year Anniversary 
By Gerald Saxon

Librarian Lisa Smith with Mr. and Mrs. Charles Lowrey.

On November 16, 1986, UTA President Wendell Nedderman and his wife, Betty, hosted a reception on the sixth floor of the Central Library. The reception had a few purposes: first, to welcome Lowry and me to the university community since we were both new to UTA; second, to formally open a major exhibition entitled "Mejico y Tejas, A Cartographic History, 1513-1850"; and third, to have Decherd Turner, then director of the Humanities Research Center at UT-Austin, talk about Friends’ organizations in general. More than two hundred people attended the reception, prompting Lowry to announce that there would be a campaign in 1987 to form a Friends group. The commitment had been made.

In the spring of 1987, Lowry and I met with Elizabeth Leatherwood and others in UTA’s Development Office to explore the creation of a Friends organization. Leatherwood was excited about such a prospect and promised to identify individuals in the community who would share this interest and be willing to help launch an organization. President Nedderman and Bill Baker, vice president for academic affairs, lent their enthusiastic support to the idea as well. True to her word, Leatherwood organized an advisory board for the proposed group. The first advisory board consisted of longtime supporters of the library, UTA alums, and key community leaders. The group included James Cribbs, Elizabeth Fagerstrom, Margaret Galloway, Jenkins and Virginia Garrett, Bob McFarland, Connie Meyer, Cheryl Moore, Mary Perry, Cherry Rainone, Dessa Spidle, Richard Stevens, Gloria Van Zandt, John Walker, and Jane Yarbrough. Charles Harrell, associate director of libraries, Lowry, and I were the library liaisons to the advisory board.

The board, called the Friends Advisory Council, selected Van Zandt as president and Spidle as vice president. Under Van Zandt’s leadership, a set of bylaws were adopted, a membership program was proposed and approved, brochures about the Friends organization were printed, and the first public program was planned. Knowing how important the first program would be in attracting an audience and hopefully the membership core for the organization, a great deal of time and effort went into its planning. After much discussion, the board decided to invite Liz Carpenter to be the speaker for the Friends’ first program. Carpenter seemed an ideal choice: she was a popular journalist and a great speaker; she had a high profile, having been Lady Bird Johnson’s press secretary in the LBJ White House; she had a new book out entitled Getting Better All the Time; and, as a member of the Robertson family of Salado, she had UTA ties, since the Robertson papers were housed in the Central Library and her first cousin, Malcolm D. McLean, was a library staff member compiling and editing the papers for publication.

On October 30, 1987, the Friends sponsored Carpenter’s presentation, selling tickets to the event. More than two hundred people attended the program and the reception and autograph party that followed. Ninety copies of her new book was sold, and the Friends garnered a great deal of positive news coverage. Based largely on the positive response of the community and the hard work of the Advisory Council in soliciting members, Friends membership grew that first year to 242, far exceeding our initial expectations.

Since this first program, the Friends have sponsored fifty-five programs in their ten-year history, attracting, on average, about one hundred people per program. Also, when totaling the number of people who have been members of the organization over a ten-year period, the number exceeds three thousand. Additionally, the Friends have broadened their initiatives to include sponsoring the Adopt-A-Journal Program, underwriting the Friends Faculty Award and the Libraries STAR Award, providing liaison with individuals with collections of interest to the libraries or to foundations capable of assisting in library initiatives, and in other ways. The Friends have also revised their bylaws, revised their membership categories, and helped the Libraries sponsor a successful one millionth volume celebration.

In short, much has been accomplished in the first ten years, and we in the Libraries have great expectations for the next ten. Special recognition and thanks should go to the Friends presidents, who include:

For information about the Friends, please see our Home Page, or call or write Betty Wood or Gerald Saxon at (817) 272-3393. The address is: Friends of the UTA Libraries, Box 19497, UTA Libraries, Arlington, Texas, 76019-0497or e-mail saxon@uta.edu.

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