Library event features sale of Oprah's dress

BOWLING GREEN, O.—A special celebration is being planned to recognize 40 years of service and special collections at Bowling Green State University's William T. Jerome Library.

The 40th anniversary celebration of the library's opening will be held April 14 from 6:30-10 p.m. on the eighth floor of the library. The event will include hors d'oeuvres, dancing to local swing band Hepcat Revival, a silent auction starting at 6:30 p.m. and a live auction featuring Oprah Winfrey's “little black dress” at 8:30 p.m.

The program also will include remarks by BGSU President Dr. Sidney Ribeau and a performance by Eva Marie Saint Scholarship recipients.

The library is home to internationally renowned special collections including the Ray and Pat Browne Library for Popular Culture Studies and the Sound Recordings Archives.

The popular culture library, which houses more than 190,000 cataloged books, is one of the most comprehensive collections of American popular culture materials. Included in the library are popular fiction, late 19 th - and 20 th -century juvenile and young adult series fiction, and an extensive collection of popular entertainment and entertainment industry materials. Additionally, the collections have many rare hardcover and paperback books, literary manuscripts and nontraditional library resources such as dime novels, pulp magazines and fanzines. In 2003, the popular culture library was renamed in honor of the Brownes' contributions to the field of popular culture.

The Sound Recordings Archives is considered the nation's premier collection of popular music sound recordings. Established in 1967 for the scholarly study of popular music, the archives contains more than 700,000 recordings representing all styles of popular music and all recorded formats. Discographies, books and periodicals related to popular music and the recording industry are also included in this collection.

Both collections serve BGSU faculty, staff and students as well as researchers from around the world.

The live auction of Winfrey's “little black dress” is the continuation of a special fund raiser that was started in October 2004 to raise money for her Angel Network Foundation.

The couture dress, created for Winfrey by Badgley Mischka, was bought by a woman who wanted it to be shared by others and to benefit many. Each time the dress is purchased, it is under the condition that it will be auctioned again to raise money for another charity. From North Carolina, the dress traveled to Sylvania, where it was auctioned to benefit the Friends of the Lathrop House in January 2006. The successful bidder at the Lathrop House event has generously donated the dress to be auctioned at the University Libraries' event. All proceeds from the event will benefit the libraries.

Tickets for the library event and auction are $40, $75 or $125. Tables of eight may be reserved for $750. For ticket or event information, call the library at 419-372-2856. A limited number of tickets will be available at the door.

The event is part of the University's Building Dreams Spring Celebration, commemorating the success thus far of the University's $120 million fund-raising campaign. To date, more than $110 million has been raised to support University initiatives such as the Wolfe Center for the Arts, the BG Experience Vision and Values program, and faculty and staff leadership positions. The campaign runs through December 2008.

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Also see http://ul.bgsu.edu/ulblog/?p=27

(Posted March 30, 2007)