Request your library to purchase this (and other great regenerative ag) book.

Dale mentioned that he was going to request his local library to purchase Eric Toenmeier's Carbon Farming book from his library, and I was an immediate copy cat. While going through the short process, and using the information so easily available in Burra's summary, I thought about an interesting new strategy for spreading the word. (I was kind of inspired by the recent thread about translating memes into every language, and spreading Mollison and others' wisdom around the world.

So how bout we all request our libraries add this and other seminal works to their collections. It will boost sales for the author and publisher, give access to millions of library patrons across the country, let the libraries know there are people who WANT this kind of information. Surely there are other benefits to having library acquisition caompaigns, but I've forgotten the time and must run.


The Carbon Farming Solution by Eric Toensmeier published by Chelsea Green in 2016. That's all the information my library requested.

Yeah Dale - I believe you're in the VIRL library system, as am I, and the more people who request the library buy a book, the greater likelihood that they will do so, particularly if it appears to appeal to a niche group. I heard about the book a couple of months ago and requested it then.

So I back you Thekla - the more people who request their libraries by Permaculture books, the greater likelihood that Joe Average, or Notyet Enlightened will see the book and hopefully pick it up and read it.

J.

Yeah, so what do you think, should we request en masse one book at a time? Or would it be more productive to just request them more randomly as we each notice various books.

Already, I am wondering why I have not already requested the library purchase a few good books I know of. Deborah Niemann's Natural Goat Care comes to mind, but there are so many others. I plan to check and see if the library already has Gaia's Garden, because if they don't they need to have such a classic. And the Permies book grid is a great source for books to request.

I would definitely request one book at a time, but try to get several permies in the area to send in the same request over a week or three week period, so the same book keeps coming to the staff's attention.

I think Gaia's Garden is one of the best "Introduction to Permaculture" books a library can own. It seems to cover the key concepts in a readable, accessible way. I'm in a regional library system that covers much of Vancouver Island and the smaller islands and they own 7 copies and not a single one is currently available. This is not an uncommon situation either.

Deciding which are the best permaculture books for your library to own is not easy. There are many factors from location, size of library system, interest in gardening etc to take into account. I know from the number of reserved and signed out books on permaculture in my system, that the demand is huge. The list of permaculture books VIRL owns is really impressive, and I admit that I was at least one of the instigators for several (Restoration Agriculture, Edible Forest Gardens Vol I and Botany in a Day are three examples - we never did figure out why they owned EFG Vol II, but not Vol I).

Good luck at spreading the joy of reading!

Just want to share the response from my local library:

*****This is an auto-generated email response. Please do not reply.*****
This e-mail is to let you know the status of your recent request for an item you did not find in our catalog. You requested Carbon Farming Solution by Eric Toensmeier. We have purchased this item even though it stretches our budget at $75.00, and with a publication date of February 2016, it is too new to request from another library. It is an important topic. We will place a hold for you and let you know when it is available for check out. Thanks for your suggestion.

Wow Thekla! That is just awesome! Way to go! I hope you find the book very interesting and helpful when it arrives. Library systems sometimes take much longer than one would expect to get new books entered into their system, but at least you will be at the front of the line once that happens.

Makes me think that some computer-savvy permie should try one of those crowd-sourcing fundraisers specifically for buying sets of basic permaculture books for libraries willing to put them in their system. It would be very hard for me to justify, as my library already has such an incredible selection. However, I'm well aware how others are not so lucky.

Yeah, Jay it worked pretty well, and pretty quickly. As I noted elsewhere, I do want my own copy, but I want the library to have one as well. I have a generosity and trust problem. I lend my books. I lend because I want the information to travel far and wide, and I believe people will return them, and I believe I'll remember who has them, and I like the feeling of sharing. These beliefs end up in a constant drain on my library. I finally figured out that if I get the library to buy a copy as well, then instead of lending I can just refer. So much the better because when libraries cull their books to make room for new ones, they have many criteria for what to keep and what to cull. One thing that keeps a book in the collection is use, use , use.

Took them a while but finally:

Thank you for submitting a Suggestion for Purchase to ... Public Library. Your suggestion meets our selection criteria for the collection and will be ordered. The order record should be entered into the catalogue within a few weeks; please check the online catalogue to search and place a hold on the material you are looking for at that time.

Title: The Carbon Farming Solution
Author: Eric Toensmeier
Audience: Adult
Request Status New

And I get my own copy thanks to the totally awesome premies.com site.

This makes me happy!

good for you! I'm happy with you!