Ice, Ice, Bucket: Talking About Philanthropy

Today’s post is a guest essay from Bonnie T., from Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh – Squirrel Hill. We hope to feature Bonnie’s work once a month or so, going forward.

If you’ve used social media in the last two months or so, you’ve probably encountered at least one video of a friend, stranger, or celebrity getting doused in very cold water. The dousee gives a small amount of money to charity (but would have been expected to give a larger amount had they chosen to stay dry), and challenges other people by name to repeat the experience/payment.

It turns out public libraries are really bad places to dump buckets of ice water over people. We have no towels, the floor gets all slippery, and it’s not great for the books. So when we want to start conversations with people about philanthropy and activism, we have to fall back on words.

The Donor Plus Card: more impact, less mess. Click through to learn how you can get one and support your Library.

A friend of mine just gave $1000 to her local library after I answered a few questions for her. She has a plan to do this each month for a year, talking with a different friend and supporting a different organization each month. She started with the idea that she had some money to spare and wanted it to go to a good cause. This was followed by the observation that she had friends who were already attached to various causes they deemed worthy. She could have deep conversations with friends, learn about projects going on in the world, help support good causes, and—simply by posting brief summaries in her blog—encourage other people to support the same good causes. This is good for her and for her friends (and through the various charities, also for at-risk youth in Seattle, mothers in Haiti, engineering students in Boston, and more), and no one ended up cold and wet.

So how you do you figure out which good causes to give your money to? It can be helpful to start with personal experience or connection. Were you a member of a youth organization? Are you passionate about protecting the environment? Do you get fired up about literacy or animal welfare? Would you rather help fight cancer, Ebola, or hunger? Most of these causes have local as well as national and international groups addressing them.

If you want to give locally, a good place to start looking is The Pittsburgh Foundation’s website. They maintain a large list of local non-profit organizations, and use fund matching events to help promote giving to these groups. The library website also has information about some non-profit organizations, divided up by category and listing local and non-local organizations separately. And, of course, you can also research organizations with the help of staff in our Nonprofit Resource Center.

If you want more advice from our catalog, try How to Be an Everyday Philanthropist, Giving 2.0, or Give $mart. Interested in books on giving that have more of a story? Try Mountains Beyond Mountains, Half the Sky, or Kabul Beauty School.

And if you want to start making a difference even closer to home…I challenge you to go get a DonorPlus library card.

-Bonnie T.

CLP LAUNCHES NEW PREPAID LATE FEE CARD

Those pesky late fees! No matter how we all try, occasionally the timely return of that library book just doesn’t happen. Suddenly there’s an overdue fee (or two) on your account. Or perhaps you have a friend or child who seems to periodically accrue just enough fees to block his account. It’s frustrating for him, for you, and for the library staff when you can’t visit us and borrow the things you want or use the computer. So what is a savvy library-lover to do?

Introducing….The CLP Prepaid Late Fee Gift Card!

• Hanukkah gift?
• Holiday stocking stuffer?
• Secret Santa?
• Upcoming birthday?
• Favorite teacher?
• Straight-A student reward?

 The uses are endless! Give the gift of reading and take away the worry of late fees.

A Sample Card

Here’s how it works:

• Purchase a Gift Card for $10 at the Customer Services desk.
• Give to a friend, loved one, or use yourself.
• When you accumulate late fees at the library, simply have your card “punched” to cover your fee!

Take note:

• Each punch is worth $1.00. Buy $10 and get $1 “free”!
• The card is only good towards late fees—sorry, but lost items must be paid for.
• No cash value/refunds—fees must be paid to the nearest dollar.
• Good only at Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh locations.
• No expiration and lost cards are the responsibility of the purchaser.

Of course we hope that you’ll return our items on time (and borrow more) but we also understand that life can get busy. Your fees help the library in many ways so when you pay them, know that they go towards all the things you value—our collections, our staff, keeping locations open, doing programs. Every little bit helps. Before you get a late fee, here are a few things to remember:

• Save your due date receipt and make sure you know which items are due when. Don’t be fooled by one week items.
• Monitor your account online.
• Know the rules for renewals—no bestsellers or 6-hour DVDs, don’t wait until it’s overdue, and no renewals if someone else has a hold on it.

When the late fee happens, we hope that you’ll pay it cheerfully and know it goes to support something you love.  We know you’ll lend us support in whatever ways you can—and the new Prepaid Late Fee card will help others you care about to enjoy the library, too!

– Beth

Things that make librarians sad

 

Here are a few things that your favorite librarians may find depressing, in no particular order.

A view of the Lecture Hall from behind the building on an obnoxiously lovely fall day. I had to go to work shortly after taking this picture.

1. When you tell us how nice it is outside. Yes, we’d love to enjoy the day too, but someone has to be here to make sure you get all of those bestsellers and magazine articles, not to mention the ever-important headphones for the computers.

 

2. Books that are returned with sand trapped in their jackets. From a technical point of view, this is bad because the sand will damage the book’s cover. From a morale point of view, this is bad because the book got to go to the beach but we didn’t. This is especially depressing during the winter months.

 

3. The places that people leave things. One of my clerks once found a Naruto DVD in the second floor men’s toilet. Not just in the bathroom, mind you, but actually in the toilet. I think he should have earned hazardous duty pay for rescuing it (don’t worry, we threw out that one and ordered a replacement copy). 

 

No DVDs have been found in this particular toilet so far. Please don't get any ideas.

4. The things you use as scratch paper. I have a note from a customer written on the back of an opera ticket stub. No big deal, you say. But this particular ticket stub was entirely in Italian. Librarians don’t get to go to Italy very often, you know. Maybe if we presented it to the management as an outreach program?

5. Mysterious stains. More specifically, the coffee stain that we found on our new carpet the morning after it was installed. So from here on out, you’ll have to keep all of your Crazy Mocha treats down on the First Floor. We may lighten up a bit eventually, but that won’t be for another ten years or so.

6. When you say scary things on the phone. Today a customer told me that he was driving on (major highway) at (illegal speed) while talking to me, so he couldn’t get his library card out to tell me his number.  Please, call us later. The library has all sorts of nifty things to be sure, but it’s not worth risking your life.

 

That’s quite a list of downers, isn’t it? So how do you cheer up a depressed librarian? It’s really pretty simple: take care of your materials, return them on time, don’t put things in the toilet, and visit us often. We’d love to see you.

 

Or you could just take us to Italy….

 

-Amy