Morse to Speak at Friends of the Library Banquet

The Friends of the Library host their annual banquet on Friday, March 5th. This year's keynote speaker for the banquet will be Oregon Senator Frank Morse '66, a member of the NCU Board of Trustees. Some past speakers for this event include writer for the Register Guard, Bob Welch, well-known author, Jane Kirkpatrick, and retired professor of History and Worship, Keith Wattkins.

The Friends of the Library is an organization that has been around over forty years. Steve Silver, Director of the Kellenberger Library, explained that, "the purpose of this organization is to encourage understanding and appreciation of the program and services of the library. In essence it is a volunteer organization made up of mostly alumni. They have an executive board that meets regularly and work on fundraising money for new projects, as well as on-going ones."

Their on-going fundraiser monies, separate from the yearly projects, goes toward restoring the library's Bible collection.  There are currently 250 Bibles of historical value, some dating back 600 years and many from the 16th and 17th centuries. They are all in various states of usability and receive restoration based on priority level. Two years ago, five of the Bible's were sent off and completely restored, costing the Friends' budget approximately $13,000. These on-going projects are quite impactful on their budget but are quite worthwhile.

Each year they have a specific project which they fundraise for. These projects have smaller budgets and vary in their scope. For example, in the summer of 2004, the Friends of the Library helped to fund Professor Loren Crow's dig at Tel Megiddo, Israel. This year they are saving up for a display cabinet to house a collection of English Bibles. The collection is not by any means a large one but is valuable enough to be secured.

Becoming a member of Friends of the Library is quite simple. For more information you can visit the following link: /library/friends/membership.aspx.