As the intellectual heart of UNC Charlotte and the greater Charlotte community, J. Murrey Atkins Library advances teaching, learning, research, innovation, academic success, and collaboration for UNC Charlotte and the greater Charlotte community by connecting people with expertise, information, services, technologies, spaces, and experiences.
Up for the Challenge?
- Atkins Library needs your support, Niner Nation! If the Library receives 49 gifts in 49 hours or less, a $1,500 reward will unlock from the Atkins Library Board!
Shape What's Next for Atkins Library
Staff Development Fund
Supports staff training programs, speakers, travel, recognition awards, and equipment for training.
Atkins Library Diversity Fund
The diversity fund supports programming and speaker fees, exhibit costs, training programs, collections, and other initiatives aimed at advancing awareness and positive action on DEIA topics for the library, campus, and local communities.
This fund is used by the dean of the library to support events and other initiatives of benefit to students, faculty, staff, and community programming. It helps pay for expenses not covered by the state budget. We use it to bring in nationally recognized exhibits such as from the National Library of Medicine. The Atkins Library Fund covers honoraria for guest speakers, cost-share collaborations with community partners, and Diversity/Equity/Inclusion events and programming.
Julian and Elsie Mason Fund for the Purchase of Rare Books
Julian D. Mason was a UNC Charlotte English professor. He and his wife, Elsie, established this endowment fund in 1993 for the library to purchase rare books, such as early editions of American literature. They made a special point to say the funds should be used to purchase books related to all the cultures of the United States, not just those of the majority. Professor Mason himself was a leading scholar of Phillis Wheatley, an African American poet of the eighteenth century. We rely on the funds generated every year from the Mason Rare Book endowment to develop our rare book collection, which is used extensively in our instruction program since the library budget lacks funding for the purchase of rare books.
