The Making of a Loyal Donor
Donors like Vanessa Cieslak ’76 who make annual gifts every year are the bedrock of UMass Amherst’s strength.
From the time she was eight years old, carrying armloads of books home from the Pittsfield, Massachusetts public library, Vanessa Cieslak ’76 knew she wanted to be a librarian. As a college student on her first visit to the Library of Congress, Cieslak immediately knew where.
“I stood up on the mezzanine of the library, looked out into the main reading room, and said, ‘I don’t care what it takes. I’m going to work here one day.’ I got to work there one day—and stayed for 35 years. It was my dream job. And UMass Amherst gave me my career,” Cieslak says.
In return, Cieslak has made an annual gift to the university ever since—nearly 45 years of loyal support.
Cieslak transferred to UMass Amherst from Texas Women’s University her junior year. A big draw was that the university was launching a Washington, D.C. internship program. About 25 students lived together for a semester and worked, for the most part, in congressional offices. Cieslak was selected for the program her senior year and placed at the Library of Congress.
The internship put her on the path to realizing her dream. Within six months of graduation, the Library of Congress hired Cieslak as a reference librarian in the Congressional Research Service (CRS), which provides nonpartisan assistance to Congress with background information, reference materials, and analysis on matters related to legislation.
Cieslak, who graduated with a BS in history and later received her MLS at Catholic University, worked in history and foreign affairs, including Eastern Europe during the fall of the Soviet Union. She then spent a decade in management before shifting back to being a reference librarian, this time in science and industry, where she focused on transportation and energy.
“CRS was a dynamic, interesting place to work. You went home every day having learned something because of what was being asked of you,” she says.
Pre-Internet, the CRS team responded to nearly a half-million requests from Congress annually. When computers were introduced, Cieslak had a front-row seat to the digital revolution. “CRS was on the cutting edge. We had the first access to databases and PCs. We grew up with the industry.”
Working at the Library of Congress strengthened her ties to UMass Amherst as well. In the late 1970s, John J. Kominski ’59, then general counsel for the Library of Congress (and a UMass honorary degree recipient in 1990), started an annual phone-a-thon fundraising drive. He would rent a space, set up banks of phones, and recruit alumni to call fellow graduates to raise money for the university.
“You got to talk to alumni across the country and learn what they were doing. At the end, I would always pledge $25 or whatever I could afford in those days, and I would always designate it to the UMass Library,” Cieslak says.
Cieslak, who went on to serve as a UMass Friends of the Library trustee for nine years, has increased the amount of her gifts over time, but the designation has remained the same: the UMass Library.
“The library is a way to connect the past and the future. UMass Library does that in a very special way with its special collections, like rare books or civil rights and social justice. Libraries also need to be responsive to their clients to stay relevant, and UMass does a really good job of having the latest technology, like 3D printing. They’ve always been proactive,” Cieslak says.
Even though she was only on campus for three semesters before graduating, Cieslak says she will be forever grateful to UMass Amherst. And she will forever support the UMass Library.
“As we used to say in our library board meetings, no one ever graduated from a library—but no one ever graduated without one.”
“The library is a way to connect the past and the future. UMass Library does that in a very special way with its special collections, like rare books or civil rights and social justice.”
