Volume 19, Number 6
Nov 1992

Financial Support of all Kinds

• On November 18 the New-York Historical Society announced that it was facing an imminent cash crisis, and had asked the New York Public Library to begin discussions on a range of possible collaborations and to consider the feasibility of a secured loan. The Library responded favorably, but even so the Society did not know whether it could remain independent and viable beyond June 30, the end of its fiscal year. In the last four years, the Society's president has raised more than $22 million and reduced the operating deficit by half, but the collection is large, the Society is active, and city and state agencies that normally could help are unable to because of their economic situation.
• In order to support conservators in parts of the world where funds are particularly scarce, the Institute of Paper Conservation (IPC) is trying out a Sponsored Membership Scheme this year. It will meet the costs of IPC membership for up to 40 nominees in special need. Cost of the Scheme for 1992/93 is expected to be £1000, which is being solicited from members and others. Nominees will have to live outside the European Community (EC), European Free Trade Agreement (EFTA), the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan, must not be a member, nor have been one since 1 January 1990, and must have a letter of support from at least one paid-up member. To nominate someone, write to the IPC at Leigh Lodge, Worcester WR6 5LB, England.
• UC Berkeley has received over $250,000 from the Department of Education, through its Title IIC grant program, for preservation and bibliographic control of the C. Hart Merriam collection in the Bancroft Library. The Library will be able, over the next two years, to create a unified finding aid; begin microfilming photographs and manuscripts for security and greater access; provide safe housing; and treat items most at risk. The collection focusses on ethnogeography and the history of American natural sciences.

  The Department of Education has several programs to support library activities. The Title IIC program is the one most often used for preservation. It has recently been renamed "Improving Access to Research Library Resources," by a provision in Public Law 102325, the Higher Education Amendments of 1992. "Title IIC" refers to a title in that law. Other grants made in that program are listed in ARL 164, for September 9, 1992. About eight of the 21 grants listed involve preservation as well as cataloging and organizing. Amounts of the grants are not given. (ARL is the newsletter of the Association of Research Libraries.)

• Jiri Vnoucek, the young man who is passionately devoted to saving the neglected rare books and manuscripts of the Prague National Library, has issued a little eight-page pamphlet in English, with photographs of the illuminated manuscripts and ancient bindings, and an appeal for donations for preserving and salvaging the historical collections of the National Library. Foreign currency can be wired to the Library's account at The Commercial Bank, Prague 1: 348331078556. Jiri Vnoucek's address is: National Preservation Office, National Library in Prague, Klementinum 190, 110 01 Praha 1, Czechoslovakia. His fax is 42 2 26 17 75.