Blake and I do communicate with each other. It
is rare to have a week go by without at least one e-mail passing
between us. I know Blake is copied on most interview requests so
usually he sees at least something from me.
We did hit a big topic of discussion that frankly I need to open up
for input. While I normally love putting together online surveys, I
wanted to lay out the case on this first. The idea is simple. What
would you do with a print supplement to LISNews?
Recent news events help draw this into focus as being a
possibility. Much of the United States recently experienced winter
nastiness on par with what Blake and I see along the Lake Erie
shoreline each and every winter. While Blake somehow ducks most of
the snow that hits Buffalo, the farm where Erie Looking Productions
currently operates is normally ground zero for getting dumped on.
I've put the farm truck into ditches three times so far this winter
and have helped economically enrich towing companies thereby.
For our region, this sort of weather is routine. It was not routine
for the rest of the United States that got hit with what we would
describe as routine light snow. After all,
a committee of the United States Senate had to cancel hearings on
Anthropogenic Global Warming on account of severe snow. Andy
Woodworth posted at "Agnostic, Maybe" about how he realized
how much tech-mediated input there happens to be in his life every
day in New Jersey. Technology is great when the infrastructure
is there to support it. When that infrastructure is disrupted the
First World looks little different from the Third.
As strange as it may sound, I actually subscribe to my community's
weekly newspaper. There is no option for electronic delivery and
likely never will be. Regional large newspapers like The Cleveland
Plain Dealer and the Erie Times-News barely cover my community so I
rarely have cause to read them except for maybe Dick Feagler's
columns in the Plain Dealer. The nice thing about receiving a
newspaper in this way is that even if the weather took away
electrical lighting for me, I could still turn to a hurricane lamp.
On the farm we have at least three such lamps safely tucked
away.
Creating a print edition of LISNews for things like essays would
create something quite resistant to technological failure while
also possessing with a lower overhead for use. This would also
provide a tangible item perhaps bi-weekly or maybe monthly that
would allow for simpler sharing of essays that do not rise to the
level of academic journals but also do not fit the pages of
glossies like American Libraries and Library Journal. This might be
a good thing but fear, uncertainty, and doubt exists as to whether
or not this would be the case.
I wish I could say this was an announcement of something coming. It
isn't. Right now, what is needed is some notion of what interest
may be for this. Comments by the Anonymous Patron are going to be
utterly useless in terms of gauging interest as some geographical
information is necessary for a Request for Quotes if we started
looking into fulfillment solutions. There is no print on demand
entity like Lulu or a custom-printing group like CafePress that
make this an easy click-through solution. Geographical data is
necessary so we can ask potential fulfillment providers how much
they would whack us for shipping out copies over the circulation
cycle. Geographical clusters of potential recipients means lower
costs while having recipients more spread out will increase the
cost of distributing something like this.
Texting your
ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 country code followed by your postal code to
the telephone number 702-714-0397 will allow us through the magic
of Google Voice to collect indications of interest and plot them on
maps. International texting to that number is possible but please
be advised that your messaging plan rates will apply. Whether you
are in a cafe in New York or hanging out near the waters of Jervis
Bay, this will not be a free text. Your personal data will be safe
as frankly we really do not want to call you back nor do we want to
send you offers of free stuff.
If a print supplement to LISNews is something you might find of
note, please let us know. We need to hear from you before February
21st.