The article presents and analyzes the support programs for Romanian libraries and library science developed by the Soros Foundation for an Open Society. In the context of extremely low budgets for libraries the only solution is to turn to other sources, foundations or other non-government organizations. This not an uncommon practice in the more developed libraries in the West.
After a general presentation of the mechanisms of management of the Soros Foundation programs, namely how they developed, who is responsible for the strategy and approvals of applications, the three main programs are described in turn: (1) Support for books and current serials acquisition; (2) Support for inter-library telecommunication and automation of libraries; (3) Support for Training in Librarianship and Library Higher Education. Descriptions include the content of the programs as well as precise details regarding the money allocated. They also attempt to analyze the strong and weak
points of each, based mainly on the impact of the programs in the library community and society in general.
