LGBT@NYPL: Raising Funds for Your Collections in Hard Times

Bacilio Mendez II, SLA-NY Diversity Chair

Many may have thought that having Jason Baumann, Coordinator of Collection Assessment & LGBT Collections at The New York Public Library, speak to the membership was a bit outside of the scope of the Special Libraries Association, given his affiliation with the behemoth NYPL, but, as he stated at the March 22nd SLA-NY Diversity Committee event, his work is "more like that of a special library or special collection than you would think."

"When it comes to fundraising," Baumann affirmed, "we're essentially all in the same uncomfortable boat of convincing people with money, in a recession, that what we do is great and posing the question 'Don't you want to be a part of something great?' We are all in the business of no less than making history and, while it seems daunting, convincing people that they want to make history right along with you, isn't all that hard. Recession or not."