Fundraising for Information
A Wikipedian wanted me to post something about their fundraising efforts. I told him I try not to post notices about fundraisers on my blog because I don’t think they fit with the mission and purpose of my blog. I found his words quite appropriate in light of the discussion of what’s happening at the Rocky Mountain News:
: That people are happy to donate significant amnounts of money to it
: an ad-free donation-supported site
: shows that information is valued
: even when contributed freely by lots of people
: and that may be of interest to people who make their lives dealing in information
What can librarians do to get people, especially our employers, to fund our jobs? How can we get our management to behave like these people who voluntarily financially support a free service? I learned recently a town decided to eliminate the school librarian’s position so they could use the money to repave some tennis courts. Outraged by the action, a number of concerened citizens raised the money on their own to fund her position.
Imagine a world in which every person has free access
to the sum of all human knowledge. That’s what we’re doing.
And so are some of us librarians.
I wonder what would happen if I tried to raise $50,000 … People would probably be quite inclined to give me money /not/ to blog.
(The lines of IM text are posted with permission.)
