Crowdfunding and Libraries

Via LISNews, Library Journal's Crowdfunding the Library.

What's crowdfunding, you might ask. Well! I have fished up a useful definition from Freebase (or really, Mashable fished it up and I liked it enough to use it, too).

Crowd funding or crowdfunding describes the collective effort of individuals who network and pool their money, usually via the Internet, to support efforts initiated by other people or organizations. Crowdfunding is used in support of a wide variety of activities, including disaster relief, citizen journalism, support of artists by fans, political campaigns, startup company funding, motion picture promotion, free software development, inventions development, scientific research, and civic projects.

Kickstarter is a pretty well known crowd funding site. Recently, the cast and creator of a TV show I liked started a Kickstarter campaign to raise money for a movie. They got it, and they broke a few records along the way. (That was the first time I donated to a Kickstarter project. I just signed up without even watching the promo video. I really loved that show.)

But does it work for libraries? In short: depends! It works best for 'short-term and new' projects, which is good. Also, it takes work; apparently you don't just put up a post and watch money come rolling in. It helps if you have a video or other marketing strategy like the folks in Shutesbury, Maine, who used a site called Indiegogo. It really really helps if that video goes viral.

So what's a small enough project? I'm not sure. Maybe:

• Funding for a library collection - 'donate to improve our kids section' would probably work better than 'donate to improve our non-fiction section'
• Funding for a very small library - really really small
• Funding for equipment - new projector? New furniture? (Maybe a funny video featuring people sitting on old crates would be good - someone on an old chair that's rigged to fall apart, that kind of thing)
• Funding for very very specific things, like 'replace our crummy old sign'

What do you think you could use crowdfunding for?