Thanks for the responses.
Suggestions:
Check out the website for Better World Books
http://www.betterworldbooks.com/ <http://www.betterworldbooks.com/>
I suggest using them for a fold-a-book-for-peace project
(The original project met and exceeded their goal of 1000 books)
Read more about the project here:
http://www.pbase.com/donverger/image/62378315
<http://www.pbase.com/donverger/image/62378315>
Try some international organizations like Red Cross / Oxfam / World
Vision to see if they have international education program that collect
materials / resources in your local community. Those projects are
different within each countries and may not available in mine.
Opinions:
There are some organizations that will do that BUT do we really want to
send outdated, unwanted materials overseas? She would be better finding
a recycling place.
Please do not send your old dingy yellow books to foreign countries! If
the books aren't good enough for your students why would they be good
enough for others?
Besides the fact - they are written in ENGLISH and many foreign
countries do not speak or even read English. Look at the titles you are
discarding - which of those titles would be useful to the country
library you have selected?
The other problem is, your books will arrive at the port or wherever
they enter the country and SIT, the recipients can not afford to pay for
the shipping of those boxes to their locations. In many cases you paid
for the items to be delivered to the country, not to the door of the
recipient.
The last concern is literacy, what is the literacy rate for the area
being considered? Can they read in their native language let alone
English?
There are many organizations out there that will take your donated money
and purchase the materials that library really needs and can use.
Our discarded books are just that, items not worthy of people's use
anymore. Find a recycler that takes books; pick up the extra dollars to
augment your collection. (Of course find out what your district policy
is!)
Just my 2 cents -- if a book is in shabby condition, and not worth
keeping in your library because of outdated content, will it be valuable
in a foreign country? Probably not. Those students deserve nice
materials with current content that is relevant to their situations.
Why would another country want some of these out of date rejects?
Previous LM_NET Posts
Searching the archives, I found this posting:
Subject: Re: GEN : Weeding question and Overseas Donations
* Subject: Re: GEN : Weeding question and Overseas Donations
* From: Earl Sande <sandes@CODETEL.NET.DO>
* Date: Fri, 3 Mar 2000 21:23:19 -0400
I for one hate to throw out my disarded items and being overseas I have
to think five times before I make my decision.
I hope you don't mind a word-from-the-wise, but donations overseas -
while they mean well and often schools or organizations do need almost
anything - often posed difficulties that donors are unaware.
1. the expense - even sea freight, clearance fees, etc. are very
expensive and recipient schools who must absorb this cost often lose
because the funding comes from the library budget itself ;
2. some governments do not distinguish between new and used items, have
restrictions that we might find strange, require pre-inspection at their
foreign embassy, or other time consuming (often costly) procedures ;
3. some personnel may consider it their right to remove items or whole
packages from a shipment. These are often re-sold or find their way to
other than the intended receiver ;
4. the shipment may be used as a "cover" for other goods, goods that
you would not like delivered. We have reason to suspect that two of our
own personal shipments had other items included
and removed somewhere along route.
5. and, finally, recognize that many, many schools and organizations
that you plan to donate to will have in their host country non-English
speaking populations. My own example from a few years ago was an appeal
to donate items to the street children's library, finding that the
children could not read English.
My experience is that International Schools that have English-speaking
students tend to be well funded.
Before you donate overseas, please be sure there is a need and that the
items can get to the receiver with a minimum of cost.
Earl P Sande, Elementary School Librarian
Director of Library Services
Carol Morgan School
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
e-mail : sandes@codetel.net.do
<mailto:'AEwing@calallen.k12.tx.us'>
Kim Picozzi
Education Service Center, Region 2
209 North Water Street
Corpus Christi, Texas 78401-2599
361-561-8670, fax 361-883-3442
website:
<http://www.esc2.net/centers/instructional/library/default.htm>
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