Early Spring Cleaning ..... Had an Idea

DMS General
#1

We’ve been doing some early Spring cleaning around the house lately, and my wife reminded me about gettting rid of some books I/we no longer use. As I was looking at my books to get rid of that I haven’t looked at in years, I realized many of the set books could be of value to makers and folks wanting to learn how to make things. Many of these books are around around building, woodworking, adobe building, etc. I had forgotten how many I really have.

So I was wondering if it would be valuable for DMS to have a library of books available on site for members to use? A lot of the books I’m giving away to people I know are really pretty good references for making stuff. I think they could be very valuable to members, especially younger members who may just be building their skill sets and knowledge? I’m sure there are other members who may have materials on all kinds of subjects that may want to donate to a library at DMS?

What do y’all feel about this?

#2

I’d like to see a reference library at DMS. It’s been discussed several times and no results…yet.
There are those who are “opposed” to hard copy and have some kind hang up on the idea.
After all everything is on the internet - right?

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#3

Many committees do have small libraries of books. The problem is - sooooo many books and they quickly take up space, a lot of space as donations grow and have to be curated and culled.

Contact the committee and see if they’d like them, there may be some that they want to add to their collection and will have to toss something now less desirable.

Thanks

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#4

It would be amazing to have a Maker library at DMS. I don’t think we can do it in the current building but I’d love it if we could have one in the next location. I would probably donate some books.

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#5

Short of individual committees owning books or a Library Committee - itself willing to reject donations and aggressively cull losers - I don’t see this happening. The region boasts many public libraries.

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#6

I’ve heard of folks running their books through the band saw to take off the spine, digitizing the pages, and then OCRing the files. Never seen it done in practice.

#7

We have a library cart by the door in Creative Arts which is our “Cart of Inspiration”, containing books on several subjects. Feel free to fill it up! (Note there are items on there that aren’t books, I plan to remove them when i’m next at the space)

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#8

Public libraries are great for things like novel and some reference material

I have books in my library that are not available in any local library

Since I really can not use many of my books any more I do intend to find good homes for
them

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#9

What if we did a free library kind of thing. Just one bookshelf, but as long as there is space on the shelf, more donations will be accepted. Somebody like myself comes by periodically to cull out anything that isn’t makery. We could automate tracking of books, or just let it be honor system. We could take any unsuitable donations to Half Price for DMS funds.

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