UA Unveils Creation of Donna Sorensen Endowed Libraries Collection

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Donna I. Sorensen will be leaving The University of Alabama when her husband, UA President Andrew Sorensen, assumes the presidency of the University of South Carolina on July 1, but the indelible impression she has made on the University community in the last six years will grow for years to come. Sorensen will be honored by the University Libraries and the University community by the creation of a permanently endowed collection of library resources celebrating the contributions of Southern women.

On Tuesday, June 11, at Gorgas Library, The Donna I. Sorensen Collection: The Contributions of Southern Women, will be unveiled at a benefactor’s luncheon. The collection will be used to support UA student and faculty research, and be available to users throughout the state and nation. It will serve all disciplines and will benefit undergraduates, graduate students and faculty. Well-known Alabama writer and storyteller Kathryn Tucker Windham will attend the luncheon and present her manuscript for her most recent book, “Common Threads,” coauthored by University photographer Chip Cooper, to the collection.

The collection will serve to enhance the University’s unique collections of Alabama history and culture. But more importantly, it will afford UA the opportunity to develop a nationally recognized strength in works by and about women’s contributions to the South and to the American experience in general.

Margaret Wilson, director of development for UA libraries, said the collection would include the acquisition of print materials as well as state of the art electronic resources, business papers, rare and old manuscripts and diaries. It will support the reference and independent research needs of all five University libraries.

“Donna Sorensen is being honored with this endowment because she has been a strong advocate for University Libraries,” Wilson said. “She feels that libraries touch all phases of campus life and all disciplines.”

The collection’s areas will include the accomplishments of Southern women in the fields of science, education, literature, government service and politics, music, journalism, history, art, nursing and medicine, performing arts, business, homemaking and athletics.

Sorensen holds degrees from Wheaton College, Wesleyan University and Cornell University. She has taught chemistry, nutrition and diet therapy at a variety of places including Boston State College, Rochester Institute of Technology, the University of Rochester, Johns Hopkins Hospital and the University of Florida Cancer Center. She has done extensive work in nutritional care for HIV-positive and AIDS patients, maternal and child nutrition, geriatric nutrition and the nutritional care of cancer patients. She is a published scholar.

Sorensen served three years as the chair of the Library Leadership board and is the founder of The Rotunda Library Society. She has served on the boards of directors of Big Brothers Big Sisters of West Alabama, Easter Seals of West Alabama, Gorgas House Memorial Board, Tombigbee Girl Scout Council, the Tuscaloosa City Schools Education Foundation, the University Club, the UA Community Music School Advisory Board and Success by Six and West Alabama Aids Outreach.

Attention Media: There will be an opportunity to interview Donna Sorensen; Wray Pearce, incoming chair of the Library Leadership Board; and Lou Pitschmann, dean of University Libraries, at 1:30 p.m., Tuesday, June 11, on the 2nd floor of Gorgas Library. Call Elizabeth Smith at 205/348-3782 for more information.