The James M. and JoAnne Morrison General Library Endowment was established in 1999. After graduating from Notre Dame with a degree in accounting, “Jim” ('62) was a public accountant until joining Morrison Construction Company, Incorporated. Today, he is the company’s president, chair, and CEO. At Notre Dame, Jim serves on the Science Advisory Council, and both he and JoAnne are members of the Sorin Society.

As Notre Dame witnesses the emergence of “centers of excellence” throughout campus, the Libraries must have the agility to respond. This requires unprecedented resources in order to satisfactorily meet the needs. Unrestricted endowments, such as the James M. and JoAnne Morrison General Library Endowment, can provide those resources.

Because of the Morrison Endowment, outstanding scholars in a variety of areas of inquiry have at their fingertips the materials which they so critically need for their research, and Notre Dame stands a better chance of attracting an ever greater number of their kind to campus. Two items of note, as recently funded through general library endowment support, are Jane’s Sentinel Country Risk Assessment, a product including more than 200 reports on U.N. recognized countries, territories, and commonwealths, and the Joint Publications Research Service Reports, 1957-1994, which is an archive of intelligence-related scientific, technical, and social science materials.