Those attending the May EDC meeting were briefed on a new effort the Club is starting to help the Escondido Library during these difficult economic times. Past President Rick Moore described the program, as yet unnamed, that will encourage Escondido residents to donate “wish list” items to the library through Amazon.com and the local Barnes & Noble bookstore. “Wish list” materials are items the library needs and cannot afford to purchase.

Moore showed statistics that traced the level of city support to the library’s materials purchasing budget during the past 20 years. Since the early 1990s, city support for the fund has dropped from $720,000 per year to a projected $25,000 for 2009- 10. In recent years as city support has declined, the library has turned to other sources in an attempt to maintain funding at the minimum desired level of $450,000 per year. But even drawing from these other sources, funding has fallen from $487,350 in 2003-04 to a projected $145,000 for 2009-10.

Moore explained that EDC will contact other community organizations and ask them to join the program and encourage their members to donate “wish list” materials to the library. It will also work with local merchants to create incentives for people to give, such as coupons for discounted purchases that would be given to donors as a thank-you. And the Club will work to help the library build its network of community support to fulfil the encouragement from May speaker Jose Aponte of the County Library, who recommended building a constituency for political power.

Moore also said the “wish list” program does not replace other ways to help the library, such as donating spare change, and donating used books to the Friends of the Library for resale. (That effort produces some $70,000 per year.)

“We’re hoping not only to help fill the gap in new materials purchasing,” Moore told the group, “but to help Escondido residents understand that the library is a community resource that is important to all of us. We have a responsibility to keep it strong. We want to help the library develop a support base that will prevent it from being an easy target when budget cutting time comes around.”

Anyone who would like to help in this effort is encouraged to contact Moore at communications@escondidodems.org or by calling 760-740-8595.

Visit the Escondido Library home page and check out the “wish list.”