AN URGENT PLEA

[DMac]

I recv'd an E last evening from a close friend who asked me to help spread the word about this wonderfull collection.

It is my hope that some one person, group or corp. sponsor might step forward to acquire this collection before it is lost forever.

The complete letter and contact follow.

Dear Friends,

I appeal to all of you to help get the word out so a home can be found

for one complete set of the ALA/LC-produced Mansell National Union

Catalog of Pre-1956 Imprints (700+ volumes)--condition is excellent.

My former employer, the Westchester Library System, Ardsley NY) is

moving, and along with the trends these days, is going to smaller

quarters and has no room for this NUC set. It will go into a dumpster

if no institution steps up to purchase it for the cost of packing and

moving. It is an extraordinary publication--originally budgeted at $10

million(1966 money) to be completed in 10 years--it ballooned to much

more. There is no online database that comprehends the total holdings

found here.

What I would appreciate from all of you are two things:

1. Please distribute this message as widely as you can electronically,

by phone to those who you think might want it, and any other means you

can imagine. The Mansell must be packed and shipped from Ardsley NY, by

no later than June 25th. (WLS is moving the first two weeks of July so

that 6/25 date is real.)

2. Specifically, please see if there is some coordinator for academic

and research libraries (or public libraries) that were hurt by Katrina;

if yes, please see if a sponsor(s) can be found to underwrite the cost

of packing and shipping them.

For more information or to follow-up, please contact Steven Pisani,

Head, Cataloging & Interlibrary Loan Services, at Westchester Library

System at:

spisani@wlsmail.org; Tel: 1-914-231-3251; Fax: 1-914-674-4186

The Pre-1956 NUC includes all of LC's pre-1956 holdings as well as the

pre-1956 holdings of all of North America's research libraries (plus

many others) including all of the regional union catalogs that were

maintained at that time (mid-1960s and earlier). Its holdings are

greater than those of OCLC's for pre-1956 imprints; every single record

was individually hand-edited; it is the single largest print publication

of bibliographical information in history (according to Stephen R.

Salmon, the LC Processing Department's Executive Officer, who researched

this point in the late-1960s.)

Steven R. Pisani's original message to me follows:

"Hi Mitch,

"It breaks my heart to say this, especially since you had input in

their production, but the NUC pre-1956 volumes will be heading for the

dumpster when WLS moves to Tarrytown unless someone would like to own

them. There will not be space to accommodate them in the new location.

"I considered that there might be need for them in Louisiana, but even

if someone wanted to pay to have them shipped, we simply don't have the

staff to pack them up and physically accomplish that. I thought I'd get

in touch with you in the event you know of anyone who

might want to pay to have them packed and trucked out of here before

July. If so, please get in touch with me and we will be glad to arrange

it.

"Hope all is well,

"Steven"

--

mitch

Maurice J. Freedman, MLS, PhD

Library Consultant

Publisher, The U*N*A*B*A*S*H*E*D Librarian

Past-President, American Library Association

www.mjfreedman.org

www.unabashedlibrarian.com

25-312 Barker Street

Mount Kisco NY 10549

mitchjf@gmail.com

1-914-241-3451 (voice)

1-914-471-5850 (cell)

1-914-244-0941 (fax)

**********************************************************

"I'll be seeing you, in all the old familiar places..."

[sevfiv]

i am going to PM you about this...

[H-Town Man]

I remember my bibliography professor talking about these. What ever came of this?