University of Southern Maine

USM Names Library for Donors

This article appeared in the USM Free Press
October 20, 1997 page 17.

The ceremony, which will be held on the unfinished fifth floor, was also to include remarks by Gearge Campbell, mayor of the city of Portland; Sally G. Vamvakias, chair of the UMS Board of Trustees (BOT); President Richard L. Pattenaude and other university representatives, and Dr. Harold L. Osher, who with his wife Peggy L. Osher donated the Osher Map Library to USM. A buffet reception and tours of the library were planned to follow the ceremony.

"The Glickmans' extraordinary generosity and commitment to education now allows us to plan for expansion of the library, which is absolutely crucial if we are to improve our library collection," Pattenaude said. "With the Glickman family's gift we will be well on our way to ensuring that the library can house a collection that the university and the community deserve."

The gift from the Glickmans was officially announced during the May 19 UMS BOT meeting. Albert Glickman is a BOT member.

"The library is the heart of any academic institution," Pattenaude said when the donation was announced, "so this gift carries tremendous importance because it reaffirms the value of serving the educational needs of our students, faculty and the people of Maine."

The $1 million donation will help complete the top three floors of the seven story building, providing an estimated 26,500 additional square feet of usable floor space over the current total space of 36,000. The remainder of the gift will be used to acquire books and periodicals.

USM purchased the building at the corner of Bedford St. and Forest Ave. in 1990. Using funds from a state bond issue, USM renovated the exterior and the first four floors of the dilapidated warehouse, resulting in a library some 9,000 square feet larger then the cramped former library in the Luther Bonney Hall. Plans called for further expansion into the upper three floors when funds became available.

An internal; committee met earlier this year to identify library space needs for the upper three floors. The committee's preliminary study recommended that the largest portion of the available space, some 20,000 of the 26,500 square feet, be used for book stacks and seating/study areas for library users. Other uses for the space, as identified by the committee, include special collections and new information technologies.

The Glickman family gift will be part of a planned capitol campaign to raise over $10 million over four years for libraries, technology, recreational facilities, and scholarships.

Albert B. Glickman, a Portland native and University of Maine trustee, is founder and sole proprietor of Albert B. Glickman and Associates, a real estate development firm that specializes in commercial projects. He is former chair and current director of the Federal Loan Home Bank of Boston and a member of the New England Advisory Council of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. Glickman, long active in numerous charitable and community organizations, he is former chair of the Cedars Sinai Medical Center Board of Governors, and former member of the President's Advisory Committee to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Locally, he served on the boards of the Portland Symphony Orchestra and the Portland Museum of Art. A longtime supporter of education, he is a trustee of the UCLA Foundation, and a former trustee of Westbrook College, the Waynflete School, and the Spurwink School.