Acquisitions fund established

We recently received a generous donation from Kenneth N. Swezey of New York City to establish our first donor-advised acquisitions fund. The donation is to support the acquisition of English-language materials from the former Soviet Union, the People's Republic of China, and other socialist countries. We already hold some books and magazines of this nature in our collection, and they're quite amazing. The first book we've bought using Ken's fund is Rags, Borya and the Rocket, a fictionalized story of how homeless dogs Laika, Kozyavka, Otvazhnaya, Belka, Strelka, Chernushka and Zvezdochka became famous as the USSR's first cosmoanimals. You can see a page from this book at the Smithsonian Institution website.

We look forward to many more acquisitions in this area, and thank Ken for his support.