As noted in an earlier post, I would love to have sponsors for the blog-related research I’ve done and would like to continue doing.
Such sponsorship would:
- Make it feasible to release The Liblog Landscape 2007-2008: A Lateral Look as a free PDF or print version priced marginally over production cost.
- Make it feasible to publish key conclusions (and, indeed, portions of most chapters) in Cites & Insights (or in a sponsor’s venues).
- Assure an ongoing project to see how English-language liblogs fare in the future, with annual updates.
- At some levels of sponsorship, make it feasible to carry out useful studies of library blogs and publish the results free as PDF or at marginal cost in print. (Those studies just won’t happen without sponsorship: I think they’d be useful, but don’t find them nearly as fascinating as the liblog studies. Then again, without sponsorship, I don’t know whether I’ll keep on with the liblog study.)
I’ve done a quick writeup of what various levels of sponsorship would involve (but not the actual prices: those are available on request). You’ll find it here.
If I was a skilled networker, I’d probably be able to send a dozen emails and have good prospects for sponsorship.
Possible sponsors could include regional networks, library vendors of almost any stripe, foundations, library schools, publishers… But, frankly, I’m rarely sure just who I’d approach.
If you happen to think this is a good idea and know someone who would be a plausible sponsor (and I wouldn’t rule out any name in advance), please let them know about this post.
I love doing this stuff and I’m good at it. I’m also dealing with the economic realities of a decimated retirement fund and where my time and energy are best spent (outside of my existing part-time job). Maybe this will help clarify matters. Maybe not.
