I'm not talking about AJL setting up an endowment fund. I'm suggesting that AJL set up a committee that will brainstorm the idea, get Federations and grant contacts involved, raise the consciousness that institutional Judaic libraries are important to Jewish life and they need special funding. Just as AJL has an active mentoring committee, you need to add a committee that will address the issue of library funding.
I know our local Federation has an Endowment chairman who meets with individuals who want to set up charitable giving endowment funds that may fund a specific issue. In Atlanta, all the day schools are constituent agencies. Having library funding of the schools or a specific school should be one of the suggestions that the Endowment chairman could offer if the schools and AJL advocated for it. Yeshiva Atlanta received a rather large gift from someone's estate (Kurt Homburger, of blessed memory). He did not have any children but his nephew and other family members were very pleased that the library was dedicated in his memory and the school had a special dedication breakfast. However, none of the money was allocated to the library. The 30 hour library position was cut down to 6 hours. The Jewish educator who is the current librarian is spending his time organizing the Beit Midrash. No books are being catalogued any longer. Libraries very often become naming opportunities. But the money has to stay with the library and be used for more than beautiful furniture. Public relations about the importance of libraries is necessary but it has to also address the money issue at the same time. Evi Reznick Instructor of Technology Temima High School Atlanta, GA Messages and opinions expressed on Hasafran are those of the individual author and are not necessarily endorsed by the Association of Jewish Libraries (AJL) =========================================================== Submissions for Ha-Safran, send to: Hasafran @ lists.acs.ohio-state.edu SUBscribing, SIGNOFF commands send to: Listproc @ lists.acs.ohio-state.edu Questions, problems, complaints, compliments;-) send to: galron.1 @ osu.edu Ha-Safran Archives: Current: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/maillist.html History: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/history.html AJL HomePage http://www.JewishLibraries.org
