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From: Frank
Remote Name: 68.80.182.248
Date: 10/20/2008
Time: 11:30:10 AM
"Hi Paul, "Thank you for taking the time to send photos for the proposed D&B catalog. Since you appear to be unfamiliar with the operation of the Beer Stein Library, before getting to your pictures themselves it would probably be useful to address your stated hope that the Library 'will become freely available for all SCI members to enjoy.' Like SCI, the Beer Stein Library could not operate without funding. While, like SCI, the vast majority of the effort associated with the Library is provided by volunteers, there are aspects of its operation that cannot be accomplished for free, and each year the Library incurs substantial out-of-pocket expense for things like Internet service providers, software development and maintenance, etc. Also, like SCI, the Library could not survive without both volunteers and membership fees. Would you or other SCI members (including those who contribute articles) expect to receive Prosit without paying dues? "The basic thesis behind the Library is that none of us knows all the answers, but that with all of us working together to contribute what we do know to a central online machine-readable repository, we can have a level of information access that has never been available to collectors before. If each of us does just a little, we'll all get a whole lot more in return. The nominal but necessary $25.00 annual membership fee is a small cost to pay for access to the product of the tens of thousands of volunteer hours that have already gone into the Beer Stein Library which, hopefully, will soon include a new Duemler & Breiden Stein Catalog...."