The Palmyra Public Library of Palmyra, PA has entered into a fundraising agreement with the Stream Energy electrical company. The agreement is simple, the library switches to Stream Energy (nope, not "steam," I read it wrong at first and thought of librarian's shoveling coal) and convinces their patrons to also do the switch. For every patron they get to switch, they get $4 per month for however long that person keeps an account. LDNewsI am torn, frankly. On one side, we got a great funding opportunity from an unexpected source. On the other, we have a library being sponsored by a private company. Wherever you stand on the privatization of libraries, it has to start somewhere. Sure, right, there is no effort by Stream Energy to influence the library or take over its services, but we can all see that this is more than the average donation. Why not go further?
Hell, see that image to the left of "The Electric Company"? It's an advertisement. Click on it and it will take you to Amazon and I get little to nothing. Tons of images of books on a library website have linked to Amazon could generate tons of revenue for a possible library but wouldn't that be a little wrong? We shall see.