According to a search under wildcat libraries, there are only 343 Economics in One Lesson books within the 10,000 libraries of their search engine. I want to start a charity/grassroots organization to provide more books.
Here in VA there are 357 public libraries of which only a fraction have the Economics in One Lesson. I would like to start with an moderately ambitious goal of supplying every library in Virginia with a copy of the book and then, once successful, move forward.
Looking for suggestions on
1) 1) How to find local libertarians
2) 2) Who to market to
3) 3) How to find out the costs per book
4) 4) Any other opinions or suggestions
Need assistance in
1) Tweaking this blog http://economicsinonelesson.blogspot.com/ to make it look more professional as well as to demonstrate the quality of the book
2) Finding other organizations with similar goals
3) Links to articles offering advice
Here is the e-mail address associated with the organization economicsinonelesson@gmail.com
Read until you have something to write...Write until you have nothing to write...when you have nothing to write, read...read until you have something to write...Jeremiah
1) Mix the old and the new. The Internet plus old fashioned handbills. Most libraries (sorry if this doesn't apply to your area, my experience of the US is quite limited), campuses etc have boards to display announcements. Use those.
2)It all depends on what you want. If all you want is finding some people willing to help you out by sharing expenses and contacting local libraries you can "market" your organizations as "to provide free market literature to the widest possible audience".
3)Hard to say. It depends on how many copies you can afford to buy. For anything from 5 to 20 you may want to check with either the Mises Institute or a local bookstore, possibly not affiliated with any large chain (store managers have limited decision power on pricing). From 20 upwards you may want to contact the publisher directly.
4)Lofty goal and usually librarians are happy to receive something different from old detective books (guess how I know that). While handing over the book ask politely if they can put it on the "New" shelf, even if the book is from 1946 or give it an otherwise prominent position. Occasional readers are much more likely to pick it up if it's displayed prominently.
Kakugo: 1) Mix the old and the new. The Internet plus old fashioned handbills. Most libraries (sorry if this doesn't apply to your area, my experience of the US is quite limited), campuses etc have boards to display announcements. Use those. 2)It all depends on what you want. If all you want is finding some people willing to help you out by sharing expenses and contacting local libraries you can "market" your organizations as "to provide free market literature to the widest possible audience". 3)Hard to say. It depends on how many copies you can afford to buy. For anything from 5 to 20 you may want to check with either the Mises Institute or a local bookstore, possibly not affiliated with any large chain (store managers have limited decision power on pricing). From 20 upwards you may want to contact the publisher directly. 4)Lofty goal and usually librarians are happy to receive something different from old detective books (guess how I know that). While handing over the book ask politely if they can put it on the "New" shelf, even if the book is from 1946 or give it an otherwise prominent position. Occasional readers are much more likely to pick it up if it's displayed prominently.
Thanks for the response. I will be sure to speak to libraries about placing the book on the new shelf. What is old fashioned handbills by the way? Another idea I thought of was to have local libertarians request the book for their library. The library is always expalding their book collections and if enough people requested a certain book they may use their own funding to order it.
I hope i get some more suggestions from the members here. It would be great it the mises institute would designate a paypal account to this project to overcome any turst mechanism. If 1/5 of the 14,000 members donated a dollar to an account we could provide every public library in my state (and more) with a copy of the book.
It would be interesting to see how funding works in your area. Usually libraries are allocated funds from a number of sources (both private benefactors and, gasp!, government entities) to purchase books. And you have to spend your allowance by the fiscal year end or else you'll be either cut off from funding or you'll get less money because, after all, you don't really need it. When I was a librarian we usually had to enact a mad scramble by the end of the fiscal year to ensure we spent every single penny we had been given. Either we bought multiple "replacement" books which ended straight in the warehouse or we encouraged the public to submit recommendations.
If funding in your area works in a similar way you may wait until the last couple of months of fiscal year and then submit your buying proposal. 99% of the time it will be accepted without questioning.
By old fashioned handbills I mean printing (or writing) a handbill/flier advertising your initiative and sticking it to a public announcement board. Just like before the Internet.