Rue Endowment supports Wooster Digital Studio and other library services

An English major at The College of Wooster, Nancy Huffman Rue ’68 grew up with a love for libraries. Today, her legacy lives on through the Nancy Huffman Rue Endowed Library Fund, which she established in 2017 as part of her 50th reunion gift. The endowment was designed to support the mission and goals of the Wooster Libraries with a particular emphasis on maintaining and enhancing the Digital Studio in Andrews Library.

By designating the College as a beneficiary of her retirement account, Rue, who died in February 2023, added more than $850,000 to her endowment, bringing the total amount up to more than $1 million. This generosity will have a positive impact on both the Wooster Libraries and students at the College for generations to come.

“As the landscape of higher education changes, being greatly influenced by technology, we find that teaching and learning is now more dynamic than ever,” said Librarian of the College Makiba Foster. “From podcasting to filmmaking, the Rue Fund allows our libraries to expand our offerings from traditional resources to digital media tools that inspire new thinking about how we understand research and scholarship.”

After graduating from Wooster, Rue earned her master’s degree in library science from Kent State University. She began her career as a reference librarian at Ohio University’s Vernon R. Alden Library in 1969, retiring as the associate dean for public service in 2004 after 35 years of service to the university. She was working at the Alden Library in August 1971 when the facility became the first library in the world to generate an electronic library record. Rue was interested in supporting similar technological advancements at her alma mater, and in 2015, she made her first gift to Andrews Library for a renovation that would create Wooster’s Digital Studio.

The Digital Studio allows students, faculty, staff, and other library users to create a variety of digital projects. Students can produce a podcast, practice a class presentation, or record video assignments, while faculty members can videotape a lecture, record an interview for the media, or present research at a conference. It consists of three spaces: a sound studio, a video studio, and an editing room. Equipment includes six state-of-the-art Mac Studio workstations and popular editing software, including Adobe Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro.

As technological advancements accelerate and user needs change, the Digital Studio will need to evolve in response. Thanks to the foresight and philanthropy of Rue, the Wooster Libraries will have the means to fund these efforts.

“The tools and workflows required for creating high-quality digital projects are constantly evolving, and the Rue Fund allows us to keep pace with that technological change by ensuring up-to-date hardware and software,” said Zach Sharrow, who manages the Digital Studio in his role as director of CoRE (Collaborative Research Environment). “When students use the Digital Studio for a course or other academic project, they are building skills that will translate directly into the real world. This helps support Wooster’s strategic focus on experiential learning in ways that complement other programs and services on campus.”

Image: Rue attended the opening of the Digital Studio in 2017.

Posted in News on October 16, 2023.