Mr. Robert Trudell
Director
Greenburgh Public Library
300 Tarrytown Road
Elmsford, New York 10523

Dear Mr. Trudell:

I have a hard time believing that the reasons you gave for "not continu[ing]" the gift subscription to the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs are genuine. What really baffles me is that all the reasons that prompted you to discontinue the subscription did not suddenly pop up. These reasons existed before you took your unfortunate decision and they didn't seem to bother you then when you had accepted the magazine.

One reason you gave is that "It is too specialized in scope for a library of this size." Does this mean that the policy at Greenburgh is to have magazines that are specialized but not too specialized or to have magazines with no degree of specialization? One may wonder to which one of the two categories mentioned do the following magazines belong: Antiques, Archeology, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Byte, Cancer Chronicles, Cricket, Dance Magazine, Electronics, Federal Reserve Bank Bulletin and many more that are available at Greenburgh. Going through the list of periodicals I will probably be able to find at least one such title for each remaining letter of the alphabet. For a library like Greenburgh that carries over 260 periodical titles it is incongruous to say that the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs is too specialized. The Washington Report, anyway, is neither specialized nor too specialized. It is a popular monthly magazine of news and information for the general public that covers the Middle East, very much like Beijing Review that you have on the shelf, with the exception that the Washington Report is an American publication whereas Beijing Review is sponsored by the Chinese government.

Also, what do you mean by "for a library of this size?" Is Greenburgh library so narrow that it can't find room for the Washington Report or so rich (over 260 periodicals) that it doesn't need it? Yonkers Library at Central Park Ave. is bigger than Greenburgh and it has accepted the magazine. Tarrytown library is smaller and it has accepted the magazine. Mamaroneck and New Rochelle libraries are about the same size as Greenburgh and they have accepted the magazine. What is exactly the size of Greenburgh library? Or is size just a pretext for lack of a better one? It is rather surprising that "a library of this size" doesn't have a magazine that deals with the Middle East, an area that gobbles up more than 83 percent of U.S. foreign assistance (48.5 percent and 34.7 percent for Israel and Egypt, respectively).

As for the other reason that the Washington Report is not indexed, I detect a kind of contradiction in your argumentation. On the one hand you say that the Washington Report "is too specialized" and on the other hand you say it is not indexed, bearing in mind that indexing is a quality that any specialized journal would normally enjoy. I also think that you are disingenuous when you raise the index argument or when you say that the Washington Report is not listed in Magazines for Libraries. One title is enough to destroy your argument and there are more than one title in Greenburgh's collection that fits this description.

Finally, you say "If you had spoken or written to me prior to donating the subscription, I would have declined your thoughtful offer." But the fact is that you have accepted it without any intervention on my part. The problem is that you later reversed your decision for very objectionable reasons, to say the least. I would like to conclude with this simple question: Why other public libraries in the county, and indeed across the United States, didn't bring up the same phony reasons you brought up?

Sincerely,

Medhat Credi