DATE: Friday, October 3, 1997               TAG: 9710010116

SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS     PAGE: 02   EDITION: FINAL 

COLUMN: IDA KAY'S PORTSMOUTH 

SOURCE: Ida Kay Jordan 

                                            LENGTH:   72 lines

GIFT TO LIBRARY IS GREAT, BUT TELL COUNCIL THAT BOOKS BELONG IN BUDGET

A recent anonymous gift of $10,000 in Central Fidelity Bank stock to the Portsmouth Public Library Foundation was a bit of good news that librarian Sue Burton didn't want to keep to herself.

The gift comes at a time when the library is struggling financially in the wake of a decade or more of neglect, when the library seemed to take more than its share of the crunch in the city budget.

With short resources, the library has scrambled but still fallen behind the computer age. While there is no rush to spend the recent gift, Burton said she hopes the foundation will use some of the money to improve the computer capabilities of all branches. Currently, only the main library and the Churchland branch have on-line services.

``A lot of people have called to ask when Manor and Cradock will be getting the same service,'' Burton said.

Computers in public libraries are a great equalizer, allowing all students the means of accessing information they need. Otherwise, only students in homes that can afford computers have the privilege.

For that matter, public libraries always have given all citizens access to information. Not every family has the money or the inclination to buy books or per-iodicals.

Libraries in many suburban areas of Hampton Roads and across the nation have become politically hot in recent years. We have to look no farther than Chesapeake and Virginia Beach to see the influence of voters who have supported public expenditures on libraries.

While Portsmouth people have not clamored as loudly for public support, a look at ongoing gifts from citizens to the library tells an interesting story.

The Portsmouth Academy of Medicine Alliance has contributed more than $800 for the purchase of medical books.

The Portsmouth General Hospital Nursing Alumni Association has given $2,300 for the purchase of a computer for faster inter-library loan connections. In addition, the nursing association placed yearbooks and other materials in the historical collection.

For three years, the Pfienster Foundation has supported the library's summer reading program and also has purchased computer software for children. The foundation, run by descendants of Morris Rapoport, has given about $3,000 during each of the past three years.

The Portsmouth Kiwanis Club and the Churchland Lions Club donate large-type books on the birthdays of members. Their contributions make up a large portion of the collection available for those who have vision problems.

Members of the Portsmouth Rotary Club have been giving books on their birthdays for more than 50 years. Burton said the library acquires 10 or more books a month from this contribution.

The century-old Students Club has been donating birthday books for years, and individuals have made a variety of gifts over many years.

The Friends of the Library, a fund-raising organization that utilizes used book sales as its major source of money, has donated the computers and Internet connections that the library has. In addition, the group purchases the copy machines in the libraries and saves the money collected for use of the machines to repair and replace them as needed.

Support for the library also comes in the form of memorials for deceased persons who have supported the library during their lifetimes.

``We recently have received quite a bit of money in memorials,'' Burton said.

Without all of these supportive citizens, the library would be hurting even more than it is.

But we can't take for granted that somebody else will take care of the library, which says a lot about any community's value system.

The $10,000 gift of stock opened the door for gifts from anybody who has capital gains problems. But you don't need big money to support the library, as many of the gifts of individual books over the years have shown us.

And it costs nothing but a little time to let your favorite City Council members know that you value the library and that you expect it to get a fair shake in the annual budget. We must make libraries a politically hot topic.

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