For Release: May 8, 2003

New York, NY, May 8, 2003 -- As a result of deep public funding cuts and the potential for further reductions, The New York Public Library announces the launch of the Emergency Campaign for the Library, which will seek to raise $18 million in private funds over the next three years to sustain essential collections, programs, and services during a period of City financial curtailment. $4 million per year is being sought for The Branch Libraries and $2 million per year is being sought for The Research Libraries from individuals, corporations, and foundations, as well as through community and grass roots initiatives. The Emergency Campaign builds on the venerable tradition of public/private partnership that began more than 100 years ago with Andrew Carnegie, forming the basis of funding behind the Branch and Research Libraries.

The campaign was formally launched in a press conference today at the Muhlenberg Branch Library calling for broad public support of New York City’s three library systems. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg presided over the event, and was joined by New York City Council Speaker Gifford Miller, along with New York Public Library Chairman Samuel C. Butler and President Paul LeClerc, as well as Ginnie Cooper, Director of Brooklyn Public Library, and George Stamatiades, President of the Queens Library Foundation.

"The Library has shared a unique public/private partnership with the City stretching back to its founding in 1895," said Mr. Butler. "No library system in America raises more private funds for its operations. In this climate we want to do even more."

"The commitment of the Library's Trustees and donors to preserving collections and key programs has been absolutely extraordinary," said Paul LeClerc, President of The New York Public Library. "The next phase of the campaign is to ask all New Yorkers to join our efforts as we work with the City to maintain five days of library service."


EMERGENCY CAMPAIGN LEADERSHIP

The Emergency Campaign is formally launched under the direction of citizen working groups that are addressing the special needs of The Research Libraries and The Branch Libraries. A supporting marketing arm has also been created to provide awareness that Library supporters in every community need to step forward and play a role in protecting our resources at this critical juncture. A team of New Yorkers providing leadership for the Emergency Campaign are Library Trustee Catherine C. Marron, who chairs the Branch Libraries Group; Trustee Louise L. Grunwald, who is leading the Research Libraries Group; and Trustee William Gray and his wife, Diana Gray, who co-chair the Marketing Group. "The importance of the branches to their communities cannot be overstated, and it is absolutely critical that collections, information technology, and programs continue to serve students, jobseekers, immigrants, and senior citizens, and the thousands of other patrons who seek information on a daily basis," said Catie Marron. "The quality of world-class collections in The Research Libraries must be maintained," said Louise Grunwald. "The Emergency Campaign will help us safeguard the Library against drastic reductions in collections and services from which it could never recover."

Bill Cosby, Joan Didion, Robert Caro, Dominick Dunne, Marcia Gay Harden, Oscar Hijuelos, Alan (Ace) Greenberg, David McCullough, Gary Wills, and Julie Taymor are among many notable "alumni" -- longtime users of the Library's collections and services -- who are lending their voices to the Campaign.


EMERGENCY CAMPAIGN

The Emergency Campaign will seek to fund the areas of the Library that have been hardest hit by the City's cuts. Chiefly, the Library will protect its collections.

Core Branch Libraries funding needs that will be addressed by the Campaign are:

Books and Materials - to ensure that books and materials - from best-sellers to current job information to up-to-date reference materials for children - remain available to Library patrons.

Computer Pages - to offer local high school and college students the opportunity to build work skills while assisting patrons who need help to make effective use of Library computers and online research tools.

Educational and Cultural Programming -- to help sustain crucial programs directed toward children, teens, and adults, from the city-wide summer reading program to writing workshops to Meet the Author programs. Often these offerings are the only educational and cultural programs available free of charge in many communities served by New York Public Library branches.

Branch Spruce-ups - to address immediate needs in deteriorated facilities. These cost-effective "face-lifts" prevent future higher costs caused by deferred maintenance and result in dramatically increased attendance.

Core Research Libraries funding needs that will be addressed by the Campaign are:

Collections - to keep pace with the wide range and depth of information created and published each year. Without Emergency funds, fewer items will be purchased and cataloged, leaving knowledge gaps that will seriously affect current and future generations of users.

Public Service - to ensure that staff is available to help users identify and locate the information they need for their research by answering questions at reference desks, providing classroom instruction in the use of Library resources, responding to phone or e-mail inquiries, and creating research tools that help users locate information independently.

Preservation - to protect fragile collections. Without Emergency funds, countless items in The Research Libraries will be unavailable to the public or will deteriorate to the point of being inaccessible.


LEADERSHIP GIFTS

Leadership gifts to launch the Campaign and provide critical support for the collections have come from members of the Board of Trustees of The New York Public Library and a number of generous donors, including the Carnegie Corporation of New York, The Starr Foundation, Mel and Lois Tukman of California, Francis Levy, E.H.A. Foundation, UBS, and The Louis Calder Foundation. The New York Times has signed on as a lead media partner.

One of the Emergency Campaign's other key initiatives is the support of the annual New York State Summer Reading Program. The program encourages children and teens to read during summer vacation through a variety of library-based incentives, such as reading lists of book recommendations for all grade levels, personal book "diaries," small souvenirs that tie into a yearly theme, an interactive website, author chats, and end-of-summer celebrations. Yahoo! is contributing funds for outreach efforts to children, including 300,000 postcards mailed to children at their homes. Support has also been provided, in part, by a generous grant from The Morris and Alma Schapiro Fund, and from Scholastic Inc., which has provided 35,000 books for this year's program. In addition, The New York Post has joined this group as a local media sponsor, providing free media space to promote Summer Reading 2003. The Summer Reading Program is jointly organized in New York City by The New York Public, the Brooklyn and Queens library systems, and The New York City Department of Education's Office of School Library Services.

"The degree to which the Emergency Campaign's energetic leaders have offered their time, strategic thinking, and expertise toward meeting our financial goals, as well as by the groundswell of support that has come from so many members of the New York community is simply extraordinary," said Dr. LeClerc. "I am confident in our ability to secure the Library's collections, programs, and services for this and future generations of users."



Contact: NYPL Public Relations Office, 212-704-8600, communications@nypl.org

5/5/03