The Freedman Family
The Freedman Center is the result of the generosity of Samuel B. and Marian K. Freedman and Case Western Reserve University's commitment to supporting technology-enabled teaching and learning.
Samuel Brooks Freedman was a graduate of Western Reserve University and had a lifelong engagement in the intersection of technology and cultural heritage. He co-founded Micro-Photo in the 1940s, which became the leading repository for international newspapers' archives. Later in life, he owned an academic publishing business.
Marian Kirschner Freedman was a graduate of Flora Stone Mather College at Western Reserve University as a music major. She was an active member of her community and a philanthropist involved in organizations including Facing History and Ourselves.
Samuel and Marian and their children, Howard and Walter Freedman, have supported digital scholarship at Kelvin Smith Library and Case Western Reserve for more than twenty years. Samuel and Marian donated an initial $750,000 to establish the Center and faculty fellowship program, and Marian and her family added an additional $500,000, doubling with matching funds, in 2012. Walter Freedman and Karen Harrison endowed the Freedman Scholars program for students in 2015.
Origins of the Freedman Center
The Freedman Center in Kelvin Smith Library (KSL) has gone through several iterations since its inception in 2005. The Freedman Center began as the Digital Library, Language Learning, and Multimedia Services Center. It featured a large bank of computers and specialized digitization and multimedia creation equipment. In 2005, the Freedman family also endowed the Freedman Fellows, which is a program that supports faculty's digital research projects. Since 2005, the Fellowship has awarded more than $200,000 to CWRU-affiliated faculty.
This humorous infomercial from 2009 shows how the Center looked and functioned in the glass-enclosed space on the first floor of KSL.
Rededicating the Freedman Center
In 2015, the Freedman Center for Digital Scholarship was rededicated, and its footprint and focus changed to meet researchers' needs a decade after the space was initially imagined.
The term digital scholarship was chosen to capture the broad ways that technology enables research, teaching, and creative activity, and consequently the mission of the Center to support researchers and learners. In addition to relying on its roots as a multimedia digitization space, the Center featured an equipment-lending program that allowed CWRU affiliates to check out items like cameras, microphones, drawing tablets, projectors, and Blu-Ray players.
The Center moved out of the glass-enclosed space, which became a flexible collaboration room. Freedman Center technology integrated with the library's other technology and services.
Walter Freedman and Karen Harrison endowed the Freedman Student Fellows (now the Freedman Scholars) to expand the initial Freedman Faculty Fellows' mission to student learners.
The Freedman Center at 20
In 2025, the Freedman Center evolved to meet researchers' changing technological and support needs. To keep to its mission of offering access to and support for cutting-edge software, hardware, and equipment, the Center pivoted to providing advanced computing that fills the niche between a typical a laptop and high performance computing clusters. To accommodate different working styles, the Center relocated behind the glass. Two areas, the Lab and Commons, provide independent and groupwork opportunities. Additionally, staff became more available to help with walk-in hours that do not require an appointment and direct booking for online consultations.
The Center has maintained its roots as a space where patrons can digitize a wide range of materials and receive assistance from experts on hardware, software, and loanable equipment. We continue to provide faculty fellowships and student internships. Click through the tabs on the left-hand navigation to learn more about the Center's current programming and activities.