LibraryLinks Spring 2007
Allan Rogg Donates Valuable Collection of Cinema Books
By John M. Meador, Jr. and Slava Mrozowski
Allan Rogg, a New York City resident, book collector and Library benefactor, has donated over 5,000 books devoted to all aspects of world cinema to our Libraries and promises to send another 1,000 titles by early summer. This past March, Mr. Rogg visited the Binghamton University campus to identify and sort the most rare and valuable of his gift volumes for our Special Collections department. He also retrieved some books from the open book stacks that needed to be moved into Special Collections for preservation and/or other treatment.
Asked why he chose us to house his extraordinary unique and valuable collection of cinema books, especially since he attended Cornell University and graduated from NYU, Mr. Rogg said, “Having spent more than twenty years chasing semi-rare books, I knew that Binghamton had strong holdings in my field, so when I visited the Libraries in December 2004 to see a book that no one else seemed to possess, I inquired about the possibility of donating books. The reception I encountered from the Libraries’ staff was both professional and welcoming. I immediately sensed that I had found a good home for my collection, where it would receive the best of care and be made available to those most able to benefit from this type of material. All that I have since learned about the history and mission not just of the Libraries but of the University as a whole leads me to conclude that I have allied myself with an institution of the highest current standing whose future promises even greater attainments.”
We are thrilled and honored to have attracted the interest, trust and support of such an expert bibliophile as Mr. Rogg and look forward to ongoing collaborations with him that will provide unique resources to our students and faculty.
Allan Rogg with some of the books he donated to the Libraries