The gift to Thomas Cooper Library's Rare Books and Special Collections will establish an endowment to support the collections through preservation efforts and the acquisition of materials, as well as through programming and publications to promote its holdings. The core of Thomas Cooper Library's Special Collections is the remarkable legacy of the antebellum South Carolina College library that includes John James Audubon's Birds of America and some 15,000 other titles. Integral parts of the collections contain works on natural history, historical children's literature, Civil War history, Charles Darwin, Giuseppe Garibaldi, World War I, Robert Burns, 19th-century literature, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Joseph Heller, John Jakes, George V. Higgins, and James Ellroy.

More information about Rare Books and Special Collections can be found by clicking http://www.sc.edu/library/spcoll/rarebook.html.

"Carolina Parrot [and other birds]," from Alexander Wilson, American Orinthology (1808-1814).

The Class of 1956 will officially be recognized when the library's two new wings are completed in 2008. The two wings to be added to either side of the Thomas Cooper Library will total 72,000 square feet of new library space. The west wing will house Rare Books & Special Collections and the east wing will provide the first permanent home for the South Carolina Political Collections. These new wings will provide enhanced facilities for researchers such as reading and research areas, climate-controlled storage areas for books, manuscripts, and framed materials, enlarged and improved exhibit galleries, dedicated space for teaching and public programs with smart classroom technology and a digitization center.

Make your secure online gift today at the University Libraries Gift Online site http://www.sc.edu/library/develop/donate.html.

"Camelia Japonica," from William Curtis, Botanical Magazine (1788).

For more information about your class gift, contact Lola Mauer, Director of Annual Giving at 803-777-4092 or lmauer@gwm.sc.edu. You may also reach the office of Annual Giving at 1600 Hampton St., 7th floor Columbia, SC 29208.

Class of 1956 Yearbook - Now Available Online

Class of 1956: The University of South Carolina yearbook has been digitized, so it can now be viewed online. Click http://www.sc.edu/library/digital/collections/GB1956.pdf to view the yearbook from 1956. Thank you to the Thomas Cooper Library staff for adapting the yearbook to this format.