Ole Miss Giving Day and the UM Author’s Reading Space
The Friends of the Library celebrated 75 years in 2015.
The sixth Ole Miss Giving Day will start on April 8, 2025, and last for 1 day, 8 hours, and 48 minutes in honor of the University’s founding year. Giving Day provides an opportunity for individual academic, career, and outreach programs to fundraise for support to a larger audience. The University of Mississippi Libraries (UML) is among those who fundraise on Giving Day. This year, the UM Friends of the Library organization are partnering with UML to raise support for the UM author reading space that will be in memory of Dr. Ann Abadie.
Dr. Ann Abadie was a former Friends of the UM Libraries board member and a dedicated supporter of libraries. Dr. Abadie is remembered for her ability to build community around her causes, which included The Friends of the Library. The Libraries were honored by Dr. Abadie’s dedication to the Friends. The organization became one of her primary focuses for many decades.
The Friends of the Library began in 1940 to provide financial support to the UM Library. Dr. Ann Abadie was a long-time member and often played a pivotal role. For example, ahead of the 75th Anniversary of Friends (in 2015), Dr. Abadie worked alongside Mary Ann Frugé and Gerald Walton to revitalize the organization. They joined long-time board members who were equally dedicated to procuring gifts and endowment funds for the University of Mississippi Libraries. Over the decades, the Friends has purchased thousands of books for our library, strengthening the university for faculty and students.
As part of the revitalization that Dr. Abadie helped spearhead, the mission of the Friends expanded to incorporate acquisitions of electronic formats and new technologies. On December 20, 2013, a letter circulated from the Friends of the Library called for the organization’s operations to meet the challenges of an era of “profound technological and educational change.”
Chair of the Department of Writing and Rhetoric Stephen Monroe served as the President of Friends in 2016 and speaks to the pivotal role Dr. Abadie played across many years. “No one loved our library more than Ann Abadie. She recruited me and many others to join Friends. Whenever Ann made a gentle suggestion, we listened! Ann avoided the spotlight, but she always conspired for the good, and she made our community better in countless ways. She was a true friend to the University and to our wonderful library.”
Please join the Friends of the Library by making a gift in Dr. Ann Abadie’s honor. Your donation will help expand our library’s collection and create a new reading space for students. Displayed in this area will be books by UM authors and the many books edited or supported by Abadie. Her portrait will hang nearby. The Friends of the Library remembers Abadie for her dedicated leadership, and we celebrate her legacy.
Co-authored by Elizabeth Batte, Outreach and Strategic Initiatives Librarian and Jeannie Speck Latartara, University Archivist and Assistant Professor