Northwestern University Library is universal, in that it supports the University across the board. The Library's collections, for example, reflect the curricular needs of every school and academic program as well as the research interests of each faculty member. Users can readily access these collections at the Library and through web portals. Once equivalent to its peers, such as Duke University and the University of Chicago, Northwestern ranks a distant third in what is allocated in the budget to support the collections. Although Northwestern University has increased budget allocations for the Library and its collections, it would take double-digit increases over many years to bring Northwestern's Library into parity, once again, with peers such as Duke and the University of Chicago.
Endowment provides a steady stream of income, in perpetuity, to support the collections.
Such endowment support is in addition to the University's budget allocation for the collections. Copyright 2001 Northwestern University Library.