I've come to the conclusion it's not about lack of awareness of the benefits of a library or inadequate public relations. The principals and executive directors in most cases recognize the value of libraries. The problem is MONEY--the lack of adequate financial resources.
The institution has to balance the budget, and among the many expenses are the need for security, the costs of utilities, health insurance and dealing with aging facilities that need repair. The board of directors is limited in how much they can raise tuition or membership fees and money is lacking. When money is tight, the library is the first to go. I believe instead of concentrating on public relations, AJL should start a national movement for endowment of Judaic libraries at both the national level, so that individual institutions can apply for grants and as the local level where each institution is encouraged to set up special funding that can only be used for library resources AND to hire a trained library professional. The Avi Chai Foundation took a step in the right direction with the Bookshelf program. Now it's 8 years later and the participating high schools are supposed to start budgeting funding for library resources. It would be interesting to know how many schools actually increased or just maintained the funding for the library staff and/or the resources. Evi Reznick <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>[EMAIL PROTECTED] 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
