On May 3, during the 25th Annual SALISES Conference the Institute’s director, Dr. Holger Henke, recognized the generous donation of over 1,800 books to its Documentation Centre. The collection, donated by the family of the late Professor, the Honourable Ambassador Richard L. Bernal, OJ, comprises books that contributed to his prolific research and scholarship, including works on economics, trade, international finance, the world economy, the emerging role of China, and international relations. The collection will serve current and future students, and is in the process of being catalogued.
At the conference, Mrs Margaret Bernal received a Certificate of Appreciation formally acknowledging SALISES’ deep appreciation of the gift. “With this donation, Dr. Bernal will have an ongoing presence at the Institute he worked at, but also to remind us how much we miss his experience and sage advice,” Dr. Henke pointed out.
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Based on the donation, and in close collaboration with the Bernal family, a new dedicated space for this sizeable private library has been envisioned. Thus, SALISES is hoping to raise funds towards the Richard L. Bernal Reading Room and Commons, a flexible multi-purpose room equipped with cutting-edge touch-table and video-conferencing technology, to be used for a variety of meeting formats, for teaching, as a reading room, for creative projects and endeavours, and community outreach.
With this visionary and cutting-edge reading and meeting room Dr. Bernal’s towering lifetime achievement and dedication to scholarship, learning, mentoring, and public service would find a powerful spatial embodiment at an institution that he loved and worked for.
An animated rendering of what this room could look like can be seen below.
