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Newsletter Issue 111 October 1997 Condolences to President Friends of our President, Eileen de Bues, were upset to learn that Eileen's sister had died suddenly in mid September. Eileen had to dash off to England just before our September meeting, and our thoughts are with her. We will try to keep things running comparatively smoothly, Eileen, and, again, we are thinking of you. Membership We were pleased to welcome to our September meeting three new members: Aldo Benzan Barbara Drummond Valerie LeMaitre Our meetings are open to all members of The Friends of The Library, and are held on the fourth Wednesday of each month at 7 pm in the Peters Meeting Room. It is always is encouraging to see new faces at our meetings. Our Membership Secretary,Maureen Eagle, reported the current membership as 122. The Summer of '97 As usual, there were no July or August meetings of The Friends. However, we were able to respond to a request early in September when the Executive of the Friends agreed to donate $2,000 towards the costs of professional advice and computer compilation for the "1997 Library User Survey". We also assisted the Library's volunteers in tabulating the thousands of completed questionnaires. The timing of this survey of suggested reductions in Library hours and book purchases necessitated by budget cuts was designed to include the views of students who might not have been in town had the survey been conducted earlier in the summer but the results were required for a Municipality budget meeting on September 23. The short survey - a one sheet two sided form - carried the postscript "This survey has been funded with the assistance of the Friends of the Library". Decisions in regard to the necessary reductions are currently being considered by our Board, the results of which will be published in "Library News". However, it would appear that a week's closure at Christmas is inevitable. In due course, Ann Goodhart will be issuing a short report in regard to the survey which will be available to us. The Friends of the Library are making plans to attend and to make a presentation at the anticipated municipal public hearing on budget cuts.