Genealogy Library likely Closed until at least July

The donation of Everton's privately-owned library to the public library system of Logan, Utah, has been covered in a series of recent articles in this newsletter. Now the city of Logan is balking at the cost.

Writing in the Herald-Journal, John Wright reports that city council members meeting on Tuesday opted to not hire an employee at a cost of $10,319 through June 30. Before denying a second Everton-related funding request in as many weeks, council members reiterated that they are reluctant to spend city funds on the library, which was donated in July and has an appraised value of $1.7 million. They said they were promised that any costs associated with maintaining the collection would be covered by a profit-sharing deal they entered with Genealogy Online. This is the company that has resurrected Genealogical Helper magazine, which ceased publication when Everton Publishing went under.

In fact, this newsletter and numerous other genealogy e-publications recently asked for a letter-writing campaign to the city councilors, asking them to fund the library. On Tuesday, council members reported receiving hundreds of e-mails requesting that it be opened. But Councilwoman Tami Pyfer noted that only about five of the e-mails were from people in Logan. "We're not spending their money; we're spending the taxpayers' money," Pyfer said of the out-of-town e-mailers.

More details can be found in John Wright's report at http://hjnews.townnews.com/articles/2005/02/02/news/news04.txt

Comments

[Dino (All Dino, All the Time)]

As much as I hate to see any genealogy resource be made unavailable, I have to agree with Tami Pyfer.

If this were in my town, I sure wouldn't want my tax dollars spent on anything with so little possibility of recovering the costs. Hwo much tourism will this generate? Enough to cover costs? I doubt it.

It seems like the donation was not very well thought out. Maybe it would have been better to donate it to the Family History Library. Just think of the distribution the materials could acheive there. Or the Allen County Library.