Evangelical Library Launches Major Capital Appeal

The Evangelical Library reports a 'marvellous early response' to its recently launched Capital Appeal with almost £90,000 of its target of £250,000 already received or promised. But the appeal still needs to reach its target if the Library is to achieve its chief objective – a major restoration of the Library and its unique collection of 80,000 books and periodicals as a key evangelical resource in the 21st century.

"We are delighted with the success of the early stages of the appeal, most of which is directly attributable to the kindness and generosity of our current users," says Peter Glover, Communications Director for the Library. He adds, "We still have a way to go however, if we are to provide the necessary investment which this superb spiritual resource both needs and deserves."

The Library also reports a significant jump in the numbers currently accessing the new on-line catalogue search facility and in its general membership. "All of this," explains Professor Paul Helm, chair of trustees, "is the direct result of the trustees' recent commitment to make this vast and marvellous heritage of evangelical spiritual literature more widely accessible than it has ever been". The present marked upward trend in interest and user growth is in stark contrast to the steady decline in membership and visitor numbers over recent years.

The Library's members' magazine The Bulletin is also undergoing a 'facelift' with the next issue, now re-titled In Writing, broadening the scope of its content to include more news about the evangelical publishing world generally. The magazine will be geared specifically to help Library members know where to find the best evangelical writing, both past and present – with much of it continuing to be available, through its unique book mailing system, from the Library itself.

Anybody wishing to make a donation to the Library's Appeal should contact Steve Taylor at the Library on 020 7935 6997, by enquiries@elib.org.uk or via the website at www.evangelical-library.org.uk

ENDS

1. The Evangelical Library when it was founded in the 1930s was originally based on the private Puritan collection of Geoffrey Williams in the 1930s. Both he and co-founder Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones recognised the need for a national resource of the best of Protestant evangelical literature, much of which was in severe danger of being lost forever at the time. The Library today holds the best historic and contemporary evangelical literature available today, including well as many rare works.
   
   
2. For further information contact: Steve Taylor (Librarian), at the Library, on 020 7935 6997 or Peter Glover, Communications & Appeal Director, on 01206 230984.

NB. This release is also available in electronic RTF format on request. Photographs of the Library are also available upon request.