How do I find, collect, beg, borrow (but not steal) new books for a school library that is filled with 30 year old, out of date, books?

I'm assuming you're looking to build a full library. This is feasible! Your first step is to build a book list. Consult a fashionable English teacher in your area to get an idea of what your community's kids consider to be high-interest, on-level reads. Science books are important, but getting kids to a level where they can read science books is more important. That means lots of independent practice, and that means using high-interest reads as an investment tool. Now get those books! See if the school librarian or a teacher is willing to make a plea for books on DonorsChoose.org. You'll need a specific book list. The poorer your school, the more likely you are to get a donation. Also, don't ask for more than $200 at a time. Ask friends to either donate recently used books or simply buy some. Host a fundraiser. You can make this happen! Older books have value, too. No one has knocked Roald Dahl from his spot on top of the children's fiction hill. And showing your kid that what we know about the world changes is a real lesson. And what about the feeling of connection with something so much bigger than yourself when you hold a book that's 100 years old?

I was just in North Texas at a conference. As you probably know Rick Perry seems to hate learning and cut state funding for libraries a terrible amount, basically defunding all library consortiums in the state except the ones that could set themselves up as non-profits which is, I think, two. One of them, however, NTRLS, was the group that invited me out. I do not think they cover your area, but they are smart people and could let you know who, if anyone, DOES cover your area and give you some advice about working with the library and/or the community to get grants and/or book drives going. You're going to get a lot more done working through channels [and dismissing channels that are non-productive but at least starting with working through channels so you don't seem like some hopped up person "from away" that is trying to change things] and working with the library in some capacity than showing up with new books and saying "here are your new books" So, I'd call the people at http://ntrls2.org/ and ask them who, if anyone, works with lirbries in your location and see if they have resources or contacts in that general area. You may find that you have some alliances you can form with the public libraries who may be less hamstrung by local regulations and do some partnership stuff that would wind up really helping out the school library but in a way that is useful to them. Also seconding DonorsChoose, it's a great resource and you could work with the librarian and help her choose some books for the collection and maybe find local business to do matching grants and etc.

Put your school's needs up on donorschoose.org. Send me the link. I will disseminate the link to my lazy NYC privileged friends who slag off your state like it ain't no thang and guilt their sorry asses into donating towards book $$$.

i went to school in plano. you are absolutely correct that looking that way for charity (or sharing what they should be sharing anyway) is a pipe dream. there is only wasted time and effort down that road. plano feels they already have to share too much of their money with the poor. it's bullshit and it's offensive, but it's still totally true. the high schoolers i went to class with would loudly complain that their father's paying taxes and instead of us getting the money, it's being shipped downtown. i tried to point out to these spoiled brats that a school less than 20 minutes from us couldn't afford text books for the students so there was one set per classroom. they didn' t have money for xerox so all homework problems had to be written out during class. of course, our school had brand new computer labs and the athletes got free shoes and nice, plush chartered buses to out of town games. if you're looking to affect change, read everything you can on the ISD system, how it's funded, how it's voted on, how rick perry has been fucking over education. vote locally for the candidates who have the power to change or influence how things in this area are. become annoying to them with all your letters and letters to the editor and showing up at campaign functions. make them pay attention and then give them your support just as loudly when they indicate they're on board. sadly, i think you're looking at an uphill battle. but the only way anything ever changes in issues like this is for people to make slow, steady changes until the goal is closer...

I favorited jander03's idea because it sounded superlative! But as someone who has served in local government and implemented a program near and dear to my heart by sending the corrupt politician standing in my way to jail for using their office to embezzel tons of $$ (and I did this VERY quietly, no one even knew I had a dog in the fight) I see further options here. There was an accidental two-pronged approach. Folks in the community willing to be visible promoted the cause and outer the politician to the press as standing in the way of public good. I figured that would go nowhere and asked those community folks to take point with the press while I collected info and data. It was a righteous cause and a lot of what I need kinda miraculously fell into my lap. What you need to ask about how your library/school gets funded vs. how the other library and school gets funded is: - Who? (makes the budget decision?) - How? (what is the legally codified procedure for making the decision?) - When? (what times of year, or in a series or years, is the budget decided) - Where? (where being in what forums - public or private - do the funds get divvied up!) I think once you have the answers to these questions, you'll have a plan of attack. You might have to quietly attend many many meetings to get a feel for this, but I don't see why you won't be able to find an overt or otherwise process to change this dynamic. Then, again. Texas has a gnarly system of cronyism in place, so who knows? At least jander03 gave you an immediate work-around.

So, donorschoose.org is great, if you could get teachers to write project proposals. There are lots out there looking for books that you could use as examples. Also HS teachers don't get sample copies of anything for free. I wish...

See, we share a tax district with Plano schools, which means I pay as much in tax to the county as if I lived in Plano Collin County doesn't run any schools. Instead, independent school districts have taxing authority, and both Plano ISD and your ISD have the county collect on their behalf. Unfortunately, you will only be able to improve the situation by pursuing changes at the state level.

+1 Dewey Donation System. Seriously, write to [email protected]; she basically asked herself the exact same question eight years ago and has done annual drives ever since.

Pamela Ribon of pamie.com does a book drive every year, maybe shoot her an email and ask her to consider making your son's school the recipient this year? I get the sense that they donate hundreds of books each year.