The J. Albert Smith Family Endowed Collection in Finance and Accounting was established in 1988. J. Albert Smith (’62), who received an MBA from New York University, has had a longtime career in the banking industry and has served on Notre Dame’s Advisory Council for the Hesburgh Libraries since 1991. His wife, Maribeth, a graduate of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College, owns her own event consulting business. The Smiths, longstanding members of the Sorin Society, have three children: Kathleen, an alumna of Saint Mary’s College, and J. Albert III and Edward, both Notre Dame graduates.

The Smith Endowment supports scholarship and research in accountancy and finance through collection development services. The fund makes possible several important acquisitions that directly benefit a core group of highly productive faculty in the Department of Accountancy. The Libraries have also acquired, due to the support of the Smith Collection, the databases CCH Internet Tax Research Network and RIA Checkpoint and most of the works published by the Center for International Financial Accounting Research at Princeton University.