Librarian invests in future students

“A Vietnamese proverb says that when you eat a fruit, you have to remember the person who planted the fruit tree,” says My Guidarelli, a catalog librarian in the James Branch Cabell Library at Virginia Commonwealth University.

This cultural belief has manifested itself in Guidarelli’s many years of giving to VCU, including her recent pledge of $1,440 to the Library of the Future Fund in support of the Make It Real Campaign for VCU.

Guidarelli has worked at VCU for 23 years and considers the university her second home.

“I’m really a student at heart, and that’s why I enjoy working in this academic environment,” says Guidarelli, who is also an assistant professor in the metadata and discovery department and an adjunct instructor of French.

The Library of the Future Fund helps ensure that VCU’s libraries can meet the needs of future generations of students by maintaining workspaces and furniture, providing educational resources and keeping pace with developments in technology.

“We try to provide our faculty and students with the best tools to encourage them in their academic and professional pursuits, but they are not the only ones who benefit from a strong library,” Guidarelli says. “Libraries are a repository for human knowledge. They benefit the entire community by providing a gathering place for all to learn, teach and collaborate.”

To learn more about VCU Libraries, contact Kelly Gotschalk (B.F.A.’90/A; M.A.’97/A), director of development and major gifts, at (804) 827-1163 or kjgotschalk@vcu.edu.