And still more on ALA

My one committee assignment for ALA right now is ALA/APA fundraising. What most people don't realize is that it is illegal for ALA to give APA any continuing financial support. ALA can give loans, but no subsidy. APA not only has to become self sustaining, but it also has to repay the loans ALA made to get it started. Since no one on the committee has any real experience in fundraising, this is quite a challenge. We were responsible for the APA Angel event to recognize the people who have given support to the association. And we worked on a direct mail solicitation (which I had been told is still the most effective way to raise money). Most of APAs money comes from selling reports that it generates on salaries and other HR information. However, the fundraising group keeps coming up with ideas for events to raise money and visibility for APA. Most of them seem to be a lot of work and I think would be very hard to pull off, like Library Jeopardy played at Midwinter or Annual. However, the other day I was asked to donate money to two different people who are hoping to "kiss a pig" at the Harford County Farm Fair this year. The money raised will support the Boys and Girls Club. It reminded me of all those MSD fundraisers where people get put in jail and their friends have to bail them out. And the school campaigns where teachers or school principals do silly things like eat bugs or sit on the roof of the school if kids read X number of books. Maybe that would be a fundraiser for APA. I am not sure what the silly thing is that people would get to do if they raise a certain amount of cash, but I would think that it would raise the profile and might be fairly easy to organize (I told you that I minimal fundraising skills).

In addition to programs and committees, I had my usual good time in exhibits. I am still drawn to the children's book booths although I have finally taught myself not to pick up scads of pins, pads of paper and posters. Of course now that so many books are given away, that is an even heavier temptation than brightly colored posters! It turned out that the two authors I would have most liked to see, Lois Ehlert and M. T. Anderson were both in exhibits on Monday when I was safely on my way home.

I did see an interesting solution to the DVD/CD/video game security problems. It is shelving where the cases are locked into the shelf. Customers can locate what they want by flipping through the choices on the shelf, then they go to a self checkout unit and scan their card. After the card is approved, they put in the shelf number of the item and get a receipt. They go back to the shelf, scan the receipt and the case is unlocked. People can also look for what they want in the self check unit rather than going through all the items on the shelf. The items aren't kept in any particular order. When something is checked back in, it is simply snapped into whatever cases are empty on the shelves. The comapny also makes lockers where people can pick up holds after hours. The system is installed at the Frederick County Public Library.

I also saw some neat furniture for kids that has toy boats or cars with magnets that are sealed between two layers of glass (or maybe plexiglass). The children can move the toys around with a magnet that sits on the table. It really looked like fun and pretty indestructable.