[NJARC] Save the Sarnoff book collection!

[John Dilks - K2TQN]

Alex,

1)  I don't know what Phil told you, but he did authorize me on behalf of 
the club.  I have his email.  He was responding to my request that he, as 
president, should do this.  He said:

"Your idea was good, but we needed to approach him before the sale was 
announced. If you would like to pursue it further with Alex, be my guest.

Phil Vourtsis
Pres.- New Jersey Antique Radio Club"

And I agree with Phil, that he should have approached you before the 
announcement.

2)  Your original email listing the books as:

"These cover electronic technologies from the 1930s to the 1960s, 
everything from radio to organic semiconductors."

This is not what your are saying now?

3)  Your librarian told me several times last month that all the radio and 
radio related books would be dumpstered to make room for "newer things". 
And then you came in and told me the books might be sold on Ebay.  It's 
only logical that the club should offer to purchase them, to preserve them, 
and to make them available to members and to the public.

Since it is obvious that you have now withdrawn the radio books, what are 
the exact plans for their future?  Will you sell them to our club?

4)  This is not a "group" offer to purchase them, if offered, it will come 
from the club, voted on by the members.  And I have received a lot of 
emails from members indicating they want to preserve the books in a library 
at Camp Evans.

I'm sorry this all comes at the last minute, but I'm assuming you gave 
advance notice to Phil about your offer to sell the books at the 
meeting-dinner, this negotiation should have taken place then, by him.

Thank you once again for your consideration,
On behalf of the club,
John Dilks



At 10:35 PM 12/12/03 -0500, Alex Magoun wrote:
>John,
>     Phil tells me that he told you to contact me directly, but not on 
> behalf of
>the club, about the reserved books that have been deaccessioned from the David
>Sarnoff Research Center library.
>     There are approximately 72 linear feet of books, and I will again repeat
>what I said to you and other prospective buyers earlier.  The vast majority of
>these books do not reflect the interests of radio and television collectors,
>restorers, or historians.  This collection represents a fraction of a  library
>designed for EE's, physicists, and chemists, mostly with Ph.D.'s, who can read
>German and French as well as English on subjects like microwave amplifiers,
>electron and semiconductor physics, lasers, etc., mostly from the 1940s to
>1970s.  In addition, a several Sarnoff Corporation technical staffers have
>culled it since you visited.
>     Because my first allegiance has to be to the David Sarnoff Library, I 
> have
>removed those books that in my opinion are relevant to historians or museum
>exhibits on everything from wireless telegraphy and television to transistors
>and integrated circuits.  I am willing to add the eight duplicate books from
>that selection (Bucher, Goldsmith, Brown and Lauer, Pierce, Miessner) to 
>the lot
>if you and your fellow members still want to buy the entire lot of over 700
>books for $350 and then donate the set to the InfoAge/NJARC library.  I will
>provide an invoice which would enable whoever writes the check to take a tax
>deduction on the purchase.
>     As Phil has pointed out, Saturday's party is a party with many 
> non-members
>attending, not a meeting, so this is up to your group, not the club, to decide
>if this purchase is the best use of your money on the club's behalf.
>     Sincerely,
>Alex
>
>--
>Alexander B. Magoun Ph.D.
>Executive Director
>David Sarnoff Library
>CN 5300
>Princeton NJ 08543-5300
>
>609-734-2636
>f: 609-734-2339
>amagoun@davidsarnoff.org
>http://www.davidsarnoff.org/
>
>
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