The Augustan Society Library has recently been blessed with a substantial grant from an anonymous member to fund cataloging of our library collection. When complete, we will have an online public access catalog (OPAC) that all may use. This will also permit us to do research, to make photocopies and reprints from our collection, and perhaps to re-institute the book loan program.
While most generous, the grant covers only the cataloging and related software, equipment, and rent needed for the project. That's a lot, but the need is greater yet.
At present, all our books are stored in plain cardboard boxes stacked one atop another. This isn't good for the books, and makes searching for any particular book nearly impossible.
The “Buy-A-Box” program is your opportunity to do exactly that — to buy an acid-free box into which the books can be placed as they are cataloged, and to buy a share of the shelving on which these can be placed for easy access.
For each $25 you donate, a box of books or magazines will be cataloged, repacked in an acid-free box, and placed on steel shelving for access. Your name will be placed on your boxes for now, and you will be recognized in a more permanent way once we again have a library facility.
Donors may also select the subject to be cataloged. You may “buy” as many boxes as you please, and select either a single subject, a different subject for each, or leave it to “Consuls' Choice”.
The program is not limited to Society members, but is open to all who wish to support the Augustan Society Library and to help make it again available to researchers and scholars.
Augustan Society members are reminded that the Board of Directors has made participation in this program an obligation of membership, effective 1 January 2011.