Read Books, Not Spam

To celebrate "National Library Week," TechSoup Stock and Mailshell are sponsoring the "Read Books, Not Spam!" campaign to help U.S. public libraries protect themselves against spam. In recognition of the value of our public libraries, on April 20, 2005 all U.S. public libraries will be eligible to order at http://ga0.org/ct/Up1JO4S1pXgp/ a free, full year donation of Mailshell anti-spam desktop software for each employee.

In addition, the TechSoup website will provide informative articles for libraries to learn more about spam - and how to have a safer, spam-free computing environment. TechSoup Stock is a nonprofit service of TechSoup that offers donated and discounted technology products for libraries and nonprofits from leading technology providers at low administrative fees.

Registration is required to receive the donation. To learn more and pre-register, visit http://ga0.org/ct/y11JO4S1pXgP/.

HOW TO ORDER YOUR FREE SOFTWARE

If you have pre-registered your library on TechSoup Stock, you can just visit the TechSoup Stock website on April 20th at
http://ga0.org/ct/y11JO4S1pXgP/ and place your order. This completely free offer is available for one day only - April 20, 2005 between 6 a.m. and 5 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time (PDT).

To expedite the processing of your order on April 20, please register your organization so that we can pre-qualify your organization as an eligible U.S. public library. Just follow these two steps:

* Download and complete the special Mailshell Anti-Spam Donation
Pre-Qualification Form (PDF) at http://ga0.org/ct/yd1JO4S1pXgQ/.
* Fax your completed form to (415) 633-9444. If your library is a 501(c)(3) organization, please also fax your library's 501(c)(3) letter of determination from the IRS.

If you have ordered from TechSoup Stock before, no additional registration is necessary to participate. Note: TechSoup Stock conducts a thorough qualification process to ensure that all organizations participating in our donation programs are qualified U.S. public libraries with a 501(c)(3) designation or FSCS ID.

LEARN HOW TO FIGHT SPAM

"Read Books, Not Spam" is more than free software. It is an educational campaign to help libraries manage the negative effects of spam on their organization. At TechSoup.org you can find helpful articles and resources on topics such as how to avoid being a spammer and how to prevent spam. Visit: http://ga0.org/ct/U71JO4S1pXg0/.

I've been totally grooving on Will Richardson's posts lately, in part because we often seem to be mulling over the same ideas and concepts at the same time. He's been blogging more about The Active Web (I'm more partial to his reference to Jonathan Schwartz's term "The Participation Age"), and I've been shaping a new presentation for libraries called "How to Join the Online Conversation."

All of this applies to trade journals, too, so I was happy to read the following from Will today:

"Amy Bowllan, who I met at Mohonk last fall, gets my vote for Rookie of the Year so far this year. She's really gone, shall we say, "blog wild" over at "Teaching in the 21st Century" to the point where just recently she even got her mother to start blogging. And the big news is that she just landed a gig as a blogger for the School Library Journal. How cool is that?"

Sweet! But you have the same question that I do, right? Hellllllooooooooooo, Library Journal? Paging Library Journal! Please come to the front desk and get your bloggers up and running!