The West Virginia University Research Corp. has fulfilled a $1 million commitment to enhance the collection at the WVU Libraries.

John Weete, president of the Research Corp., announced that a recent payment of more than $73,000 brought the total contribution from the Library Challenge Grant Program to $1 million.

“The West Virginia University Research Corp. has been proud to contribute to strengthening the library resources and thus provide additional support for WVU faculty and student researchers and scholars,”said Weete, who is also vice president of research and economic development.

In March 1997, the Research Corp. implemented a program to spur internal support of the libraries. The Library Challenge Grant Program promised to match $2 for every $1 contributed by staff or faculty to an endowment established by the WVU Foundation on behalf of WVU Libraries.

Because of the grant, rather than paying the full $5,000 for a library endowment, donors made a five-year pledge of $1,334. The remainder came from the Research Corp.

The incentive motivated more than 200 University employees to step forward to create endowments.

“The Libraries are grateful for the Research Corp.s support in building these book endowments,”Libraries Dean Frances OBrien said.”We believe books are important, and library users want a current and useful on-site collection. Continuing journal cost inflation puts a lot of pressure on our budget. If we did not have these book endowments, we would be buying fewer books.”

The WVU Research Corp. is an independent not-for-profit corporation established under the laws of West Virginia for the purpose of stimulating and supporting research and other scholarly activity at the University. Over the last decade the corporation has invested several million dollars in supporting individual and team research projects at WVU and in assisting the faculty in acquiring the research equipment they need to execute a highly productive, leading-edge research program.

The WVU Foundation is a private non-profit corporation that generates and provides support for West Virginia University.