Introduction

The Wichita Public Library Foundation, Inc. has received a $500,000 challenge grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. This grant must be matched with $1,500,000 raised from the local community over a three year period ending July, 200. Once established, interest from the $2,000,000 Humanities endowment fund will be used

1. to rebuild, strengthen and expand our existing Humanities holdings, specifically addressing collection voids in history, literature, literary criticism, geography, biography, religion and language;

2. to increase regional access to the Humanities, a variety of electronic databases featuring Humanities abstracts and Local History/Genealogy will be offered through the Library’s on-line system, easily available via dial-in modem or Internet;

3. to consistently offer free, quality adult and juvenile programming in the Humanities, including book discussion clubs, lectures, exhibitions, storytelling and walking tours.

The overall goal of this program is to establish funding to insure promotion and understanding of the Humanities in perpetuity through the expertise and resources of the Wichita Public Library.

Since 1993, the Wichita Public Library has charted new sources of financial and collaborative support to address its most critical needs. This action was born out of necessity. Reeling from two decades of diminishing book budgets, unproductive budget battles with the City of Wichita and reduced staff and operating hours, the Wichita Public Library has turned to the community for financial help, leadership and strategic vision. The end result of this four year process has been a public library system which is now more internally efficient and productive with each budget dollar and personnel hour. Refocusing its external objectives in light of community needs, the Library system has retooled itself and its image from that of a understaffed, under-computerized static institution into a dynamic and essential part of the Wichita community.

Forging a multifaceted fundraising strategy based on public/private partnerships, a ten year program called the Campaign for Books, encompassing designated grants addressing specific Library needs, creation of a $3,400,000 endowment and general support for a new automation system, is regenerating the entire Library system. During the past four years, the Library has successfully upgraded its online catalog system, providing dial-in access and Internet service to Library patrons. Books and materials budgets are consistently supplemented each year by the existing endowment fund, providing librarians and patrons with greater selection in more languages and formats.

With the addition in 1992 of the Dynix online catalog, the Wichita Public Library has positioned itself to complete its endowment campaign. The success of this endeavor is critical. Through internal analysis, the Library has determined a number of its Humanities collections to be heavily used, but worn and tired, the average age per volume being 21+ years, suggesting a lack of current scholarship and research in available selections. In the Literature collection there are 27,277 volumes, yet the Latin, Italian, Spanish, Greek, German, and French sections are weak, together accounting for only 7.4% of the total collection. Frequently, college and high school students regularly empty the shelves of literary criticism, writing guides, and biographies and besiege the Reference Desk to demand additional works. Geography and History are larger collections (78,599 volumes) but suffer similar weaknesses. Military, African, South American, European and Ancient History sub- collections are significantly weak, containing 3000 volumes total.

By rebuilding these collections, adding easily-accessible Humanities databases, and promoting usage through a variety of discipline-related programming, we plan to fully explore, celebrate and reunite our community and south central Kansas to the Humanities. The following narrative will acquaint the reader with our plans, the concerns and involvement of our community for its completion, and the progress we have made to date. Finally, our commitment to the Humanities will be detailed, along with our fundraising plan and NEH’s critical role in our future.

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