The organization is the Roosevelt Island Community Literary Associates (RICLA), which ran a volunteer library for about 20 years.  This library, which began in the basement of the Westview apartments before moving to its current location on Main Street, became a branch of the New York Public Library (NYPL) in June 1998.

RICLA was instrumental in getting the library transferred to the city system, gaining rapid access to its vast collections and a much bigger budget for new books and other materials.  But the shift essentially put RICLA out of a job.  NYPL, because of its union obligations and other organizational rules, severely restricts volunteer activities, according to David J. Bauer, president of the Island group.

"The board of RICLA has decided that RICLA should either find a new role within its corporate charter or fold its tent, taking pleasure in a job well done," Bauer said in a statement to The WIRE.

"To examine the possibility of accomplishing both things, RICLA is actively seeking suggestions from the Island citizens as to how RICLA might best use its resources to support literary activities to benefit the Island."

Bauer, who served as vice president of administration and finance for the New York Public Library in the 1980s, declined to give the exact figure, but said the group's resources now were less than $25,000.  In its heyday, RICLA's budget, paid for in part by an annual black tie Gala Party, never exceeded that amount, he said.

The money must be used for "library- or literary-centered" projects, he said.  In announcing the effort, Bauer spelled out the formal conditions of a grant program:

"RICLA therefore seeks specific proposals from Island citizens for an outline of a project aimed at a literary need of the Island.  The written proposal should clearly identify the goal of the proposed project, the time span contemplated, the standards by which the success of the project may be measured, and a draft of a financial plan."

He asked that letters of inquiry be addressed to him at 531 Main Street.  He said that RICLA had already received several inquiries.

Bauer said the group had only about 12 to 14 active board members now.  Previously, "one underpaid staffer and 35 unpaid volunteers" ran a 30,000-volume lending library, he said.  Many of the books were donated.

In recent years, RICLA members have led book discussion groups at the library, have signed up new borrowers on Roosevelt Island Day, and have encouraged residents to transfer their library cards to the local branch.  As Bauer pointed out, "the more people claiming Roosevelt Island as their home branch, the more the local acquisition budget will be."

But the group has clearly run out of steam.  Gone are the local Author Evenings, the gatherings of residents reporting on their vacation trips, the weekly movies for children.  The generation that created much of the Island's recent history, and left a legacy of published material, including a book of Island photographs, appears to be ready to pass the torch, and with it, perhaps, some seed money for people with new ideas.