The library, located in the Workplace, was named in honor of Dr. James H. and Mary Duke Biddle Trent Semans, longtime friends and benefactors of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. The late Dr. Semans, a noted surgeon and philanthropist, served as chairman of the board of trustees for the school’s first 17 years. In helping to establish NCSA in the 1960s, Dr. and Mrs. Semans gave aid and comfort to untold numbers of budding artists for their educations and careers. The library endowment, scholarship funds and Semans Art Fund, a grant program that provides ongoing support for student-initiated projects, represent only a portion of the many ways in which these two generous supporters have served this school and this library. In 2000, the Semanses were recipients of the prestigious Giannini Society Award, given in recognition of meritorious service to the School of the Arts. As Chancellor Robert Suderburg wrote of them in April, 1978: