Donors to the Missouri State University Libraries provided a record-setting $3.66 million in support in FY21, which ended June 30, 2021. This is a significant increase over the previous record-setting amount of $2.03 million in FY20. 

The Missouri State University Foundation reports that most of the funds used to receive various gifts that support the work of the MSU Libraries experienced increases year-over-year. In particular, funds supporting Special Collections and Archives grew substantially, as did the funds supporting various components of collections, services, and spaces related to Ozarks history and life, including the Ozarks Studies Institute and the Ozark Jubilee Digitization Project. The Meyer Library General Fund also received a record-setting gift amount. 

Both Brent Dunn, Vice President for University Advancement, and Tom Peters, Dean of Library Services, expressed their gratitude for the strong, increasing, sustained support from the donor community, especially as we head into an intensive two-year period of fundraising, planning, and activities building up to the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in late June and early July of 2023, when the Ozarks region will be highlighted and celebrated on the National Mall in Washington DC. Missouri State University, especially the MSU Libraries, is providing leadership to dozens of cultural memory institutions across the five-state Ozarks region who are working to plan and execute this large program on the national stage. 

Thank you, Donors!