Posted May 12, 2003.

New York Launches Emergency Campaign

The New York Public Library launched an emergency campaign at its Muhlenberg branch May 8 to raise $18 million in private funds over the next three years to protect areas that have been hardest hit by city cuts. Mayor Michael Bloomberg was on hand to solicit private funds for the campaign, which seeks $4 million per year for branches and $2 million per year for the research libraries; it also needs additional support for the annual state summer reading program.

“The library has shared a unique public/private partnership with the city stretching back to its founding in 1895,” said NYPL Chairman Samuel C. Butler. “No library system in America raises more private funds for its operations. In this climate we want to do even more.”

The fundraising got its first boost with a $4.5-million grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, headed by former NYPL President Vartan Gregorian. Other donors whose gifts helped launch the campaign include the Starr Foundation and members of the library board of trustees.

“The Emergency Campaign will help us safeguard the library against drastic reductions in collections and services from which it could never recover,” said trustee Louise Grunwald, chair of the Research Libraries Group.

Posted May 12, 2003.