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I did not see the beginning of this thread, so pardon me as I step on my soap box ... One summer I volunteered to go to South Africa to go to a village to start a library and train the villagers to be the librarians. Through a series of unfortunate events I had to spend my first week there with the coordinator rather than in my village. The coordinator was to visit each village (she eventually dropped me off at my village) so I got to visit other places unlike the other volunteers. During the other visits we were taken by the local people and the government people to places to a warehouse to see what had been donated by good hearted people from America. I personally saw books on "How to set up traction", "Skiing in the Alps", "Microwave Cooking" (most of the people had no electricity)! I could go on and on. The pages were worn; the covers were old and tattered. They told us many boxes of donated items sit in warehouses on the docks and mold because the villages have no funds to ship them from the docks inland. Each one of the books in that warehouse was stamped with DISCARD. When I got to my village, there were boxes of donated books as well. When we started going through the boxes I said, "Oh good, I get to teach you about weeding! Let's look at this book! _East and West Germany_ These countries no longer exist. Do we want it in our library?" "It is a book!," they said. "But it does not give good information," I explained. "But it is a book," they said sadly. Yes, they wanted that book even though it did not give good information, but do WE want to give THEM BAD INFORMATION? NOT ME! I know when I first became a media specialist the schools I started at each had a stamp which said, DISCARD, and one of the first things I do is throw that stamp away and buy one that says, "REMOVED FROM COLLECTION". I find that to be a gentle way of saying discarded. That way if a teacher wants a discarded book for his or her classroom library the kids won't think of it as trash. My 2 cents or 25 euros. :-) lm Lynette (LYNN) Mitchell Library Media Specialist Crystal River High School 1205 NE 8th Ave. Crystal River, Florida 34428 mitchelll@citrus.k12.fl.us 352-795-4641 ext: 248 352-795-4519 FAX Currently reading: Stephenie Meyer's books, Twilight, New Moon & Eclipse (at the request of several of my students) PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION: The information contained in this electronic transmission, and any documents attached hereto, may contain confidential information that is legally privileged and confidential. The information is intended only for the use of the recipient(s) named above. If you have received this electronic message in error, please notify the sender and delete the electronic message. Any disclosure, copying, distribution or the taking of any action in reliance on the contents of the information received in error is strictly prohibited. -----Original Message----- From: School Library Media & Network Communications [mailto:LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU] On Behalf Of Jody Newman Sent: Thursday, January 24, 2008 6:43 AM To: LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU Subject: Re: Donating discarded books Hi Netters: This subject grabbed my attention this morning...I haven't seen the original posting but I thought I'd interject a couple of anecdotes. When I was in the schools my LMS impressed on me how touchy this subject always is and that she never dumped books in the school's dumpster but found ways to donate them or take them home to her personal dumpster rather than run the risk of having some thrifty townsperson criticize the schools for wasting taxpayers money! We also had feelings not unlike what Dennis stated: "Some see the giving of used books to developing countries as obscene and demeaning." Yesterday I attended a swearing in ceremony for one of the Lost Boys of the Sudan who a group of our townsfolk have been helping along. As we waited in line to register him and have him become a new American citizen, we asked what he brought with him when he arrived 7 years ago. He only brought a few items of clothing but he told us that one of his friends brought along an American Accounting book that had been shipped to the Sudan. He carried it all that way as he wanted to learn accounting when he arrived here! It made me think again about this entire subject matter :-) Peace...... -- ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Jody Newman Library Aide, retired Stow, MA newjody@comcast.net "To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment." Ralph Waldo Emerson ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ -------------------------------------------------------------------- Please note: All LM_NET postings are protected by copyright law. You can prevent most e-mail filters from deleting LM_NET postings by adding LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU to your e-mail address book. To change your LM_NET status, e-mail to: listserv@listserv.syr.edu In the message write EITHER: 1) SIGNOFF LM_NET 2) SET LM_NET NOMAIL 3) SET LM_NET MAIL 4) SET LM_NET DIGEST * Allow for confirmation. * LM_NET Help & Information: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/ * LM_NET Archive: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/archive/ * EL-Announce with LM_NET Select: http://lm-net.info/ * LM_NET Supporters: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/ven.html * LM_NET Wiki: http://lmnet.wikispaces.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------- Please note: All LM_NET postings are protected by copyright law. 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