Committee for Skeptical Inquiry

[SkeptInq@aol.com]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE   For more information, please contact
    Timothy S. Binga, (716) 636-1425, ext. 210

NEWS RELEASE
Center for Inquiry Libraries Exhibit Rare Books

AMHERST, N.Y. - The Center for Inquiry Libraries have announced the opening
of a special exhibition displaying of some of its rare holdings. Several
first editions of Thomas Paine's Age of Reason (English and French) will be
on display, as well as an original edition of Ethan Allen's Reason: The Only
Oracle of Man. Allen was head of Vermont's Green Mountain Boys during the War
of Independence. His book is considered the first major book on freethought
published in the United States. There will also be on display several works
written by Robert G. Ingersoll and autographed to family and friends.
Ingersoll was considered the leading orator of the nineteenth century. Many
rare nineteenth-century works on spiritualism are also on display.

The Library is currently exhibiting materials from the paranormal
investigator Dr. Joe Nickell. These include items such as spirit trumpets,
objects of alien kitsch, snake oil, and many classical medicines widely
available in the United States but now considered to be fraudulent. Included
in the display will be a rare article by Harry Houdini from a 1925 edition of
Popular Science on how he exposed fake mediums. Several items from this
collection have been exhibited by Nickell on national TV.

The Libraries contain three major collections. (1) The Freethought and
Humanism Library has works on humanism, atheism, freethought, and the
separation of church and state. It is viewed by many researchers as the best
collection of its kind in the world, specializing in the major works by
English and American freethinkers, especially of the eighteenth, nineteenth,
and early twentieth centuries. (2) The Skeptics' Library is the only one of
its kind. It has extensive books and magazines on paranormal phenomena,
psychical research, UFOlogy, alternative medicine, and pseudoscience-as well
as extensive skeptical critiques of this field.  The Library of American
Philosophical Naturalism contains works by leading American philosophers,
especially John Dewey and Sidney Hook. This Library also contains an
extensive collection of works by and about Bertrand Russell, and some papers
of the archives of the Bertrand Russell Society.

The Libraries have extensive audio and videotapes with hundreds of programs
on skeptical and humanistic topics that have been aired on national
television and radio. It also maintains an archive of all of the books
published by Prometheus Books, Western New York's leading publisher.

The Libraries are used by a wide range of researchers. For example, Keay
Davidson of San Francisco, author of Carl Sagan: A Life, used the archival
materials from the Center's Libraries in writing his book. Visitors worldwide
have availed themselves of the Libraries.

The Center for Inquiry Libraries are sponsored by the Council for Secular
Humanism and the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the
Paranormal, both founded by noted Professor Paul Kurtz. It contains over
50,000 books, pamphlets, and magazines, and is located in Amherst, New York,
adjacent to the north campus of the State University of New York at Buffalo,
1310 Sweet Home Road.

The Center for Inquiry Libraries is a member of OCLC via NYLINK, and a member
of the Western New York Library Resources Council (WNYLRC). Timothy Binga,
director of the Center for Inquiry Libraries, has announced that it is
planning to expand its services by becoming an Interlibrary Loan supplier via
OCLC. Additionally, a web site is available with a link to the Libraries'
holding site, provided by the WNYLRC. The URL for the holding site is
http://lepac1.brodard.com/search/wr/.

Researchers, scholars, and the general public interested in the extensive
files and archives and collections on either skepticism, atheism, or
humanism, are invited to use this facility. For more information regarding
the Libraries, or an appointment, please call Timothy Binga, director of the
Center for Inquiry Libraries, (716) 636-1425, ext. 210, or via e-mail at
TSBatCFI@aol.com.

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