HIT: Adopt-a-book (part 1)

[Gayle Hodur <ghodur@REDSHIFT.COM>]

Adopt-a-Book events at various school libraries.
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The way Adopt-a-book works at my school is thus:

I order the books I want for the library. When the new books arrive, they are
put in a special adopt-a-book section. We have a created a form for each
book, indicating how much it costs, who is donating it, and who it is in
honor of. Parent volunteers fill out the title and price on each form and put
it in the books.

Parents can drop in any time to adopt books. This week we are having two
"back to school" nights. For these, I will arrange displays of books all over
the library and help parents choose.

The most important thing is that the parents cannot bring their own books.
This way I still order and get the books I want, but the parents help offset
the cost. By the way, I charge the parents the cover price of the book, not
the discount I get from the jobbers.

If you have any questions, please let me know. I can also fax you a copy of
the form we use, if you want.

Good luck,
Yapha
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Start from the other end:
Set a standard fee (like $20. per book),
make sure that you have a separate account to handle all such donations (so
that the money does not disappear into the school's general fund, or the
PTA's),
have sample bookplates available, and some books, but more important -- WISH
LISTS OF TITLES to choose from.
If you buy the books in advance, it implies that you do already have the
money.
If however, parents see a list of books that YOU KNOW the school needs, but
can't afford right now, they will be more likely to offer funds for something
to benefit their child's learning.
Make it very clear that YOU will purchase the books, from your regular
library vendor:  otherwise you end up with parents bringing in unprocessed
books that are "just like" the title on the list (but often NOT what you had
specified), and expecting you to be delighted.

WARNING:  be aware that you are stepping into dangerous ground, however --
do you really want to depend on donations for the materials that your Board
of Education should be funding??  It's a sticky legal, ethical, and
educational issue. . .next stop, fundraising for the librarian's salary.
 Think about it.    Do they ask for donations for Phys. Ed. equipment?

******************************************************************************
Gayle Hodur
ghodur@redshift.com