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I received several responses to my question about your experiences with this free 
book program for libraries. In general it seems that these books are for YA and 
adult. Some more advanced than others. They are truly free to school libraries in 
rural or underserved areas. I found the order process cumbersome but managed to put 
through the art department's selections in 1 ordering session. Although it claims 
you can set up an account and then add books to the order over time, our second 
login to our account didn't work and we had to set up a new account and start over. 
No LM-netters who responded to me had that trouble so it may be just me! We sent 
our order yesterday and I've received an email response and will wait for the books 
to arrive. We ordered about 60 books. This may be the world's first free lunch!
   
   
  This is my original post. Responses follow after: 
  Does anyone know about the free books program through the Distribution to 
Underserved Communities Library Program? It sounds too good to be true. If your 
school is in a rural, inner-city or other underserved community, your library can 
receive a bunch of free art books. The application is minimal. 
Has anyone ordered these and found the quality to be good? I guess I am just 
suspect because, you know "no such thing as a free lunch". Thanks for your help. I 
will report back with our experience in a later post.
Cindy Staley, LMS
James A. Green HS Library
Dolgeville, NY
   
   
  Here are the responses to my query:
  It is free, not a lunch, but a banquet!  I have received several boxes of the 
most incredible and varied books for three years in a row and if you don't mind 
cataloging them and processing, you will be amazed.  Now I agree that some material 
is too adult, but we now have hardcover sets of ALL  the American Photography 
annuals, ALL the American Illustration annuals, it seems like we have every art 
museum special showing or collection catalog known to man, and many multi-cultural 
and individual artist things, like ancient art, mosques, 9-11 photos,kimonos, a 
beautiful set of student level famous artist biographies, just unbelievable and too 
long to list.  Now there are of course sometimes things that are too sexual for 
them.  Bodies are part of art, and they need to learn that at any age, but since 
artists sometimes show graphic and ironic concepts regarding pornography which are 
way above their heads, I just razor it out of the book if I see that, and since 
they would tear
 it out anyway, at least it is a clean cut.  Also, sometimes if it is a very short 
pamphlet you could just do whatever quick processing you might do for a paperback, 
not even in the database.  Really worth looking into, and if you worry about the 
mature art content, just stick with museum collections and read every annotation 
before ordering the texts.  
   
  We received several books from the program last year.  Most of them were 
paperback although a few were very nice hardbacks.  The cataloging however is 
difficult to find and the program stipulates that the books are for the library.  I 
have several that I haven't been able to find in LC or colorado 
prospector(cataloging is not my forte).  I ordered, figuring it's free...why not 
take the chance. 
   
  Hello,
Yes, I have ordered from these people and it is all free.  You can
order
only once per year, however - which I didn't realize until I tried to
order again. It's a little hard to figure out exactly what you are
getting, but it is definitely worthwhile and very easy to do.  Since
I'm
in a K-8 I got some books with art that was too graphic to put on the
shelves, so I gave those books to our art teacher who can use the other
pictures in the books. 
   
  
I have ordered them.  However, they are higher level.  I use them with
our student teachers and the art teacher.  They are truly free.
  
 
  Hi Cindy,
I used to receive them at my old school.  They are ART books -- so if
you have an ongoing art program, they may be of interest.  Many are
catalogs of exhibitions, and some have what might be considered
objectionable images, depending on your population.  Some are really
cool -- there was one title that I got which was a series of interviews
with famous and not-so writers.  That turned out to be useful.  My art
teachers used to like some of them, and we put a couple in the
professional library as well for teacher enjoyment.  Free IS popular!

   
   
  Thanks for everyone's help on this question!
  Cindy Staley
  James A. Green Jr./Sr. High School Library
  Dolgeville, NY 
   

       
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