The idea of this project is to come up with a menu of ~30 books and a list of ~10000 libraries, and to offer to buy for each library, any number of books from the menu. This would ensure that folks interested in EA-related topics, who browse a library, discover these ideas. The books would be ones that teach people to use an effective altruist mindset, similar to those on this list. The libraries could be ones that are large, or that that serve top universities or cities with large English-speaking populations.
The case for the project is that if you assume that the value of discovering one new EA contributor is $200k, and that each book is read once per year (which seems plausible based on at least one random library) then the project will deliver far greater than the financial costs, of about $20 per book. The time costs would be minimised by doing much of the correspondence with libraries over the space over a short period of weeks to months. It also can serve as a useful experiment for even larger-scale book distributions, and could be replicated in other languages.
I like this idea, but I wonder—how many people / students actually use physical libraries still? I don’t think I’ve used one in over 15 years. My impression is that most are in chronic decline (and many have closed over the last decade).
I imagine that e-book systems (text and audio) work via access to large libraries, rather than needing people to request books be added individually? So maybe there is no action needed on this front (although someone should probably check that most EA books are available in such collections).
I think print books are still preferred by more readers compared to e-books. You might as well donate the books in both the physical and digital formats and probably also as an audiobook.
It looks like libraries don’t generally have an official way for you to donate print books virtually or to donate e-books, so I think you would have to inquire with them about whether you can make a donation and ask them to use that to buy specific books. Note that the cost of e-book licenses to libraries is many times the consumer sale price.
I really like this project idea! It’s ambitious and yet approachable, and it seems that a lot of this work could be delegated to virtual personal assistants. Before starting the project, it seems that it would be valuable to quickly get a sense of how often EA books in libraries are read. For example, you could see how many copies of Doing Good Better are currently checked out, or perhaps you could nicely ask a library if they could tell you how many times a given book has been checked out.
In terms of the cost estimates, how would targeted social media advertising compare? Say targeting people who are already interested in charity and volunteering, or technology, or veg*anism, and offering to send them a free book.
Putting Books in Libraries
Effective Altruism
The idea of this project is to come up with a menu of ~30 books and a list of ~10000 libraries, and to offer to buy for each library, any number of books from the menu. This would ensure that folks interested in EA-related topics, who browse a library, discover these ideas. The books would be ones that teach people to use an effective altruist mindset, similar to those on this list. The libraries could be ones that are large, or that that serve top universities or cities with large English-speaking populations.
The case for the project is that if you assume that the value of discovering one new EA contributor is $200k, and that each book is read once per year (which seems plausible based on at least one random library) then the project will deliver far greater than the financial costs, of about $20 per book. The time costs would be minimised by doing much of the correspondence with libraries over the space over a short period of weeks to months. It also can serve as a useful experiment for even larger-scale book distributions, and could be replicated in other languages.
I like this idea, but I wonder—how many people / students actually use physical libraries still? I don’t think I’ve used one in over 15 years. My impression is that most are in chronic decline (and many have closed over the last decade).
A way around this could be to provide e-books and audio books instead of physical copies. Would also make the distribution easier.
(In the UK at least, it’s possible to borrow e & audio from your local library using the Libby app)
I imagine that e-book systems (text and audio) work via access to large libraries, rather than needing people to request books be added individually? So maybe there is no action needed on this front (although someone should probably check that most EA books are available in such collections).
My understanding is that individual libraries license an ebook for a number of uses or a set period of time (say, two years).
I think print books are still preferred by more readers compared to e-books. You might as well donate the books in both the physical and digital formats and probably also as an audiobook.
It looks like libraries don’t generally have an official way for you to donate print books virtually or to donate e-books, so I think you would have to inquire with them about whether you can make a donation and ask them to use that to buy specific books. Note that the cost of e-book licenses to libraries is many times the consumer sale price.
I really like this project idea! It’s ambitious and yet approachable, and it seems that a lot of this work could be delegated to virtual personal assistants. Before starting the project, it seems that it would be valuable to quickly get a sense of how often EA books in libraries are read. For example, you could see how many copies of Doing Good Better are currently checked out, or perhaps you could nicely ask a library if they could tell you how many times a given book has been checked out.
In terms of the cost estimates, how would targeted social media advertising compare? Say targeting people who are already interested in charity and volunteering, or technology, or veg*anism, and offering to send them a free book.
Not sure, but targeted social media advertising would also be a great project.
Added.