The Michael G. Browning Family General Library Endowment was established in 1990 by Notre Dame alumnus Michael G. Browning (’68). Michael is chairman of the board and president of Browning Investments, Inc., an Indianapolis-based real estate development company. An active member of the Indianapolis community, Michael has advanced the city through several development projects. A veteran, he served two years in the United States Army in Washington, D.C., and in the Republic of South Vietnam. At Notre Dame, he serves on the Advisory Council for Graduate Studies and Research, and he funded the Michael Browning Family Cinema at the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center, the only THX-certified cinema in the state of Indiana.

By providing support for the acquisition of ever-changing hardware and software, and the training and development necessary for their implementation and management, the Michael G. Browning Family General Library Endowment enables the Hesburgh Libraries to be responsive to the constantly evolving research needs of scholars. It supports services such as DigiTool, which manages digital assets and D-Space, which provides researchers with a place for open access to their work. Additionally, with the help of the endowment, the Information Technologies Division has been able to initiate several cutting edge services, including a “next generation” discovery system for both print and electronic resources which have just been released (OneSearch). Having access to resources such as this not only advances each individual scholar’s work and expertise, but his or her entire field.