November 2008 info and appeal:

The Crisis: Our main server, despite being located at a major server farm, was badly damaged. After a couple of days of attempting to work through people there, we made the long drive (more than four hours) to work on it ourselves. Nine hours later we reluctantly carried it back and continued to work for a number of days to effect repairs, reload software, reload data files, and test. We have added a second, on-line backup server in case something like this happens again. We are also in process of adding a second, independent set of servers at another location. This will ease the load on the existing servers, and provide a much needed secondary presence on the Internet. This will provide 100% up-time for all sites hosted at The e.Lib!

The ‘Silver Lining’: We have been encouraged by the number of phone calls and emails expressing what our efforts mean to so many of you.

The Shameless Appeal: We do not receive financial support from any organization, Anthroposophical or other. Some of you kindly sent donations (we are a non-profit, so donations are tax-deductible). We also sell web hosting and related services to help cover our costs. However, our efforts are almost entirely self-funded, primarily from retirement savings. We do not have benefits or salaries.

We feel very strongly that it is important to make this available free of charge, and every day nearly 20,000 of you use our resources, which currently comprise more than 100,000 pages. As you may realize, serving up such large amounts of data to so many people every day requires much greater capacity (and expense) than your home internet.

Now the ‘shameless appeal’ part: The Mission of The e.Lib, Inc. is to make literary and other intellectual works available to the people of the world through the Rudolf Steiner e.Lib, Fine Art Presentations, KnowNews dot Net, two Goethean sites, and the e.Lib itself. We believe that it is very important not to impose user fees, knowing that many cannot afford to pay, and believing that making the information available is paramount. But we really do need help with the expenses. We apply for grants, try to get support from Anthroposophical entities, but at present we have none. (By the way, while we cooperate with the Anthroposophical Society in America and the Rudolf Steiner Library, we do not receive any financial support from them.)

We greatly appreciate anything you can do to help, be it tax-deductible donations, help finding grants and other funding, or anything else. You can find more information on the website in our Helping Out section. If you plan to make purchases through Amazon.com, using our link to get there will help us, too.

In considering our appeal, it may help to know that this website is part of The e.Lib, Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation operating under State of Michigan and US Federal regulations. This means that your donations are tax-deductible, and we are not taxed on these funds. We are permitted to conduct some for-profit, taxable business, which also helps support this initiative.

To those who have contacted us to make donations or to express appreciation: Thank you so very much. This has been a terribly challenging time, and our hearts are filled with gratitude.

If you know of any foundations or organizations that might be interested in supporting our work, please send the contact information to the Funding and Grants Coordinator.

Our initiative includes:

• Maintaining and expanding our presence on the internet:
  • Rudolf Steiner e.Lib
  • The e.Lib
  • Fine Art Presentations
  • KnowNews dot Net
  • The Goetheanism and Goethean Science sites
• Digitization of materials and presentation on the internet (click here to learn more about this process)
• Archival preservation of deteriorating materials
• Providing website hosting and related services
• Locating and applying for grants and other sources of funding

Won't you consider how much value you get from the information presented at our websites and join these folks in helping this initiative? As our electronic/online library grows, so does the opportunity for you and people like you to find the information you seek. With your help we can strengthen all of our resources and consequently, our presentation to the world.

We are grateful for the opportunity to do our small part in making knowledge available. Thank you all for helping us.

James D. Stewart
e.Librarian