River Campus Libraries

This past Thursday, a group of eight River Campus Libraries staff members traded their desks for garden gloves and joined the United Way of Greater Rochester and the Finger Lakes's annual Day of Caring. 🌿💪🪏

We partnered with the Swillburg Neighborhood to clean up Otto Henderburg Park and the Labyrinth Garden — weeding, pruning, raking, picking up trash, and getting the spaces ready for the community to enjoy. ☺️

A huge thank you to everyone who participated, and especially to Katie Papas, who organizes this effort every year and makes sure our libraries show up for our broader Rochester community. 💙💛

Here's to clean parks, good neighbors, and muddy shoes for a good cause.👏

This weekend, we're welcoming the Class of 2026 into a tradition that stretches back more than 175 years. 🎓✨

Swipe through these images—the earliest is from 1903, pulled from Special Collections at the University of Rochester River Campus Libraries—and you'll see something that hasn't changed across any decade: the unmistakable feeling of a moment that was hard-earned and worth every bit of it. 🥳

The fashion evolves. 👗 The cameras get better. 📸 The Class of 2021 adds masks. 😷 But the joy? Completely timeless. 😊

To everyone celebrating this weekend—graduates, families, faculty, staff, and friends—congratulations! 👏 We're so proud to be part of your story, and so honored to help keep it preserved for the next 175 years. 💙💛

154 people chose River Campus Libraries yesterday. 🤩👏

154 alumni, students, colleagues, friends, and members of this community—made a deliberate decision to invest in what happens here. In the students who discover their research voice for the first time. 🥰 In the scholars accessing rare materials from across the world. 📜 In the spaces where creativity and curiosity find room to breathe. 💫

Together, those 154 gifts added up to $47,000 — and every dollar will go directly toward the spaces, resources, and opportunities that our libraries what they are. 🐝

We are genuinely moved. This is what community looks like.
Thank you. From all of us at River Campus Libraries. 💙💛

Halfway there, — and River Campus Libraries is feeling the love. 💙💛

If you've been waiting for a reminder: this is it. 😊

Day of Giving runs until midnight, and every gift —no matter the size— makes a real difference for the students, researchers, and community members who call the libraries home. 💕

From therapy dog study breaks to rare book discoveries to cutting-edge XR research, this place holds a lot. Your gift helps keep it that way.

Make your gift 👉 https://bit.ly/RCLGiving

Today is URochester's Day of Giving, and right now, your gift goes further! 🐝

When 30 donors give to the River Campus Libraries Barbara J. Burger iZone Fund, an additional $5,000 will be unlocked—supporting iZone and the creative projects born from the space, including an exciting possibility for our Meliora Weekend conference—thanks to University Trustee Barbara Burger ’83.

Every gift, of any size, makes a difference. 💙💛

Make your impact today 👉 https://give.rochester.edu/schools/UniversityofRochester/day-of-giving-2026/pages/river-campus-libraries/?a=12793062&utm_source=RCL&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=dayofgiving26

May 6 is the University of Rochester's Day of Giving — and we hope you'll consider supporting River Campus Libraries. 📅💙💛

This year, gifts can go toward four areas that reflect everything we believe a great library should be: responsive, innovative, and built around the people who use it.

Leading the way is the Libraries Excellence Fund — a flexible fund that empowers our Dean to say yes to new ideas, emerging needs, and time-sensitive opportunities as they arise. It's one of the most direct ways to invest in the Libraries' future. 💡

Gifts can also support our Summer Internship Program (experiential, project-based learning that's entirely philanthropy-funded), the Art and Music Library Fund, and the Russell A. Peck Memorial Fund for the Middle English Text Series — a gold-standard open-access medieval literature collection serving 500,000+ users worldwide that is now at risk due to federal funding cuts.

Save the date — May 6. https://bit.ly/RCLGiving

Congratulations to this year's winners! 👏🤩 We're excited to showcase their artwork in Carlson Library for years to come 💙💛

UR Libraries will soon welcome new leadership as Timothy McGeary prepares to assume the role of Andrew H. and Janet Dayton Neilly Dean beginning in March.

Appointed to the position earlier this year, McGeary will serve as chief strategist and advocate for library services, from collections and digital infrastructure to research and academic partnerships, while also working to strengthen the Libraries’ visibility and engagement across campus.

During this digital age, McGeary wants to highlight the relevance of having a physical space despite ongoing technological change, saying that “libraries have continued to be in high demand.”

🖋️: Hannah Smith, Features Editor
📸: Teddy Almond, News Editor