Volume 11, Number 1
Jan 1987

Friendly Interest

Library friends groups are beginning to take an active interest in preservation of the materials they have helped purchase. Information has been received recently from two friends groups, both in New York City.

• The Friends of the City College Libraries have an "adopt-a-book" project with a flyer that says, beneath a picture of a victorian girl with a book, "Napoleon Bonaparte, Michael Faraday, Langston Hughes, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Delmore Schwartz NEED YOUR HELP. Thousands of damaged books sit on the Library's shelves awaiting treatment that may never come due to lack of fends. Adopt a tired library book and sponsor the tender, loving care it deserves." It then gives references for 16 examples of books that need rebinding, which is the only kind of help available, apparently, at that library. The reason they need help, the brochure says, is because of "severe budget reductions and the wildly inflated cost of books and commercial binding." (This misrepresents the cost of commercial binding, which has increased very little in the last 20 years.) the donor who gives $15 can have a journal bound in their name, or have in-house mending done, and acid-free wrapping of brittle books.
• The Lydenberg Society was formed at the initiative of two members of the Friends of the New York Public Library in September 1986, with the cooperation of the Library's Assistant Director for Preservation (John Baker) and the Development Office. It is a special support group within the Friends, and its purpose is to raise money for the Library's preservation efforts. About 48 people attended the inaugural reception September 18, at which Dr. Elizabeth Rosen discussed the origin, significance and conservation of the objects in the exhibition, "The World of Jainism; Indian Manuscripts from the Spencer Collection." They will meet again March 5 and will hear a 20-minute talk by a member of the conservation staff about the relationship of the private collector to the development of special collections in research libraries, and care of private collections; there will also be a tour of the conservation facility, with demonstrations, and a display of treated items. The third program, June 4, will consist of a panel discussion on how a large library goes about identifying its preservation priorities.