Drupal books in Libraries - simple and concrete outreach

Posted by pwolanin on May 8, 2011 at 1:15pm

The proposed group here http://groups.drupal.org/drupal-books-libraries seems like a sensible and concrete way to do outreach.

I suggested the author join this group, so in case it's deleted after that here's the proposed mission:

Drupal Books in Libraries works to get more Drupal books in local libraries, through fundraising and purchasing books, getting publishers to donate books or from individuals looking to make a contribution for the benefit of their local community.

There are many people who cannot afford to purchase Drupal books and libraries offer a source of books that they otherwise would not have access to. I started this group after visiting my local library and discovering they didn't have a single Drupal book available, so I donated two, the librarian was over-joyed - she knew they needed Drupal books but did not have the budget to buy them. So go down to your local library and if they don't have a book or two consider donating one!

proposed by: http://groups.drupal.org/user/43367

Comments

Hi, yes I am a member of this

Posted by Jeff Burnz on May 8, 2011 at 3:24pm

Hi, yes I am a member of this group and planned to cross post here also.

~~hopefully my group will be approved soon so I can start posting about the first couple of initiative ideas I have to things moving.~~

Arrr, I see the other email now, I am being asked to combine the Drupal Books in Libraries with this Diversity and Outreach.

Well, I'm not really sure they are the same thing. There is an entire movement out there in the world called "diversity outreach" and has very specific purposes - namely representing underrepresented groups - usually ethnic and gender groups, but also crosses over into sexual orientation, disabilities, mental illness sufferers and so on. The outreach part is discussion and sharing of ideas, experiences and educating the wider community on these peoples needs and issues.

Now, I had planned to post in this group shortly to tell my story - I have suffered from MDD for many years and wanted to share that will this group, I'm not really sure how that sits alongside "Drupal Books in Libraries" which is planned to be primarily a fund raising platform. The main initiatives revolve around raising money to purchase books and then distributing them to libraries that are nominated by members. My first initiative is "1000 Books in 1000 Libraries".

I should add thats not the only initiative, certainly simply getting local Drupalers to buy books for their library or at least make the librarian aware there is a need is another big part of it, but there are many libraries that cannot afford to buy these books.

Good thinking, I've been

Posted by linclark.research on May 8, 2011 at 3:04pm

Good thinking, I've been meaning to read Drupal 7 Module Development, but the closest library that has it is 440 miles away. This post made me think, rather than getting on the waiting list for interlibrary loan, I'll just buy the book for my library :)

I think you misunderstand the

Posted by pwolanin on May 8, 2011 at 4:00pm

I think you misunderstand the goals and mission of this group.

The goal (as I understand it) is outreach and recruitment of more people to the Drupal community.

The initiative you propose is exactly aligned with this goal, which is why a separate group seems more likely to distract and fracture the discussion. If essentially all the post there should be cross-posted here, then that indicates it should just be one group.

Note that we can use taxonomy, views, and pages within the group to make it easy to track certain initiatives.

Well, lets get some

Posted by Jeff Burnz on May 8, 2011 at 5:45pm

Well, lets get some clarification on what this group is about and whats its mission and goals are. From my perspective (having worked in outreach for many years with various NGO's) this does not sit well in this group, so I would really like some clarification here - the use of the word "diversity" is particularly interesting to me here.

I would add that Drupal Books in Libraries does not have the express goal of bringing more people in the community - but rather providing resources to those who would otherwise not have access to them. That is where there is a partial overlap, but its tiny, and why I would cross post some posts, but not all.

Looks like we're not getting

Posted by Jeff Burnz on May 21, 2011 at 5:27pm

Looks like we're not getting any feedback - where can we go from here? I think one of the problems here is the name of this group could be problematic and the description is not 100% clear. The name perhaps should be "Diversity Outreach", not Diversity AND Outreach or something totally different.

For example please see this comment: http://groups.drupal.org/node/140299#comment-461714

Lets take a quote from it:

Outreach to anyone who feels sidelined, alienated, less than, other, or otherwise shunned because of factors of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, psychological/mental/physical health conditions/disabilities, age, wealth, etc.

I would ask you to read that entire thread and I think you will get a very strong picture of what this group is about.

Drupal Books in Libraries is a group for people interested in getting books into libraries and that's it. What you are asking is for this Drupal Books in Libraries to align itself politically with the diversity outreach movement, which is wrong - not because I don't agree with its goals (I am a member of this group and fully support it), but because Drupal Books in Libraries is apolitical and should have the freedom to remain so.

So I would ask again to please reconsider this application - I think it can be hugely successful :)

You don't think libraries =

Posted by arianek on May 21, 2011 at 11:26pm

You don't think libraries = outreach to people who might be less financially able to buy expensive technical books, or outreach to people with non-technical backgrounds (maybe that ought to be added to the list)?

I'm not pro or con library group, but if you're just looking for a forum to organize this, by all means use this group at your leisure.

I think you're partially

Posted by Jeff Burnz on May 22, 2011 at 3:26am

I think you're partially correct, however there are just as many library users who do not fit that description.

I use libraries, and I am neither lacking economic means nor non-technical. For example I may just want to borrow something for a very short time, I don't need to own it, I can just borrow it. In fact most of the other library users I know are professionals, with higher education and very different sets of reasons for visiting pubic libraries - such as encouraging reading in their children, carbon footprint (borrow don't buy) and other motivators such as simply wanting to learn more about a particular subject, but not to the extent of wanting to clog their bulging bookshelves with stuff they might read once - I am firmly in this group :)

Libraries exists for and are used by people from all walks of life - so its not a diversity issue. Looking at this purely as outreach is also somewhat incorrect, yes it has an outreach component but so do many other groups on g.d.o. I don't think anyone wants to see every group with an outreach component placed under this group because it wouldn't make sense for many of them, and in this instance I don't think it makes sense for my group.

I think that's all I've got to say on this. I've made my argument. If the powers that be don't agree then I can live with that, its not the end of the world and I'll find a way to get this done one way or another :)

Ok, well, that point is

Posted by arianek on May 23, 2011 at 3:51am

Ok, well, that point is completely true + valid! Libraries aren't at all just for people who can't afford books as easily, etc. Obviously it would be a good way to support current Drupallers, as well as maybe pull in new people by just having them happen upon the books or be like "oh that's that Drupal thing I heard about, hmm, I'll grab that one".

If there are enough people interested in a Drupal in Libraries group, then I'm not sure why it would be (or has been denied), but in the interim, as I've said, feel free to use this group as a place to organize, and if you do get the group approved later on, you can go back and edit to crosspost the existing posts.

The question is simply

Posted by pwolanin on May 23, 2011 at 4:03am

The question is simply whether the whole of the initiative of trying to get more Drupal books in libraries is a good and natural fit to be origanized within this group (I think this is an excellent example of outreach, and hence is is a natural fit) or whether it's a bit orthogonal and it would make more sense to be organized via a separate group with some cross-posting.

At this point it looks like no other concrete initiative is underway in this group, so I favor having fewer groups until/unless it makes sense to split, rather than splintering from the start.

@Jeff - if you really don't feel comfortable doing things that way, I'll approve the other group, but I'm trying to get my motivation and perspective across here in the open.

Additionally, like Peter

Posted by arianek on May 24, 2011 at 2:57am

Additionally, like Peter said, there hasn't been a ton of activity here - so maybe we should broaden the definition of the group to encompass more kinds of outreach than just to marginalized groups?

@Jeff - any feedback here on

Posted by pwolanin on June 3, 2011 at 5:37pm

@Jeff - any feedback here on my last comment?