good news, bad news, good news

good news - I dropped off the twelfth load of books at the warehouse yesterday. Without hesitation I declare the project half finished on my side.

bad news - More, and more complicated, paperwork is necessary on the Romanian side.

good news - Some guy has given me free run of a small warehouse full of unsorted, used books. The only price is some sweat equity.

:-(

Oh, those well-meaning people who insist their musty, water-stained Readers' Digest Condensed Books would be a perfect addition to any modern library and are soooooo disappointed when I say thanks, but no thanks.

TGIF

Today I met a local high school principal socially and she seemed very interested in helping and will pass the info along to her head librarian.

I met-up with a local Girl Scout leader and she's going to make a pitch to the local GS Council.

I dropped off some literature at the local Orthodox church and asked if one of the youth groups might want to become involved.

And last, but not least, I took another load of books to the warehouse.

it's fun watching the pallets grow

I dropped off another load of accumulated books at the warehouse. As I count it, I need 10 tall pallets and 10 short ones to make the load. I'm working on the 7th tall one now.

I visited a local high school, requesting that some of our literature be given to the appropriate staff member. I'll stop again in a couple days to follow-up.

I stopped off and talked with a guy at a warehouse I stumbled on. His wife sells books on the net and has a LOAD of stuff she considers junk. The husband says she wants me to take it all, but I can't commit to that, even if I had space to work in, as I didn't even get a look at the stuff.

I confirmed I can slough off the stuff I don't want to the local Y for their book fair in the fall so now I have negotiating ammo. Wish me luck as the pile looks HUGE.

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F.Y.I. Anyone shipping things internationally should be aware of the requirements if they decide to use wooden pallets.

I always intended to pre-palletize the container-load of books as I went along because I had not intention of floor-loading 20,000 pounds of freight at one time and I have no idea of the manpower I'd have available when I reached my goal. I figured either 10 pallets, each loaded 7 feet high or 20 pallets each loaded halfway and stacked on top of each other.

I planned on grabbing scrap pallets as they are commonly found around almost any loading dock or industrial site. However, a shipping company tipped me to the fact that all international requirements cite that all wood pallets must meet ISPM 15 standards.

I was throughly confused until I found an example of the certification logo online and found some pallets with it. It looks like the graphic here and is branded onto a couple places on the wood. The top letters are the country of manufacture and the manufacturer. The bottom letters indicate the method used (HT = heat treated). The logo on the left is imperitive.

Without it, the shipment could be refused and returned and you'll be on the hook for all fees and penalties and if you don't take the stuff back it could be destroyed and you'd STILL be on the hook for ALL costs.

As I searched the stacks I found laying around dock areas I noted that only 1 in 20 or so is easily found and sometimes the company won't allow you to take them. A sharp eye and nose should be able to find a good source, as I ultimately did.

two stores cleaned out

With another two loads of books I have essentially cleaned out the basements of two used book stores.

Today I met with a little girl's mom. We chatted and the daughter will be doing a neighborhood/family book drive to earn some sort of award at school.

The writer of the article told me his church wants to have a book drive.

two more trips, thirty more boxes

The pile grows a bit larger with thirty boxes added today and another 15 or so boxes scheduled for tomorrow.

The Book House

As I walked out of my place I thought someone stole 2 boxes of books off my pick-up. I was pretty perturbed until I realized I didn't quite finish my work last night. I finished up those boxes and took them to the warehouse.

The dock door was blocked and I had to move the boxes by hand from one pallet to another. The stack is starting to look significant, though by no means near finished.

After I dropped them off I went back to the basement of The Book House and continued packing up books they're letting me have. A surprising find is a huge pile of recent science-fiction magazines. I hope there are some sci-fi fans hungry for the English language. I'll have them cleaned out by next week. I should ultimately get 40 boxes oe so from them.

I received thank-you e-mails from Timisoara, Onesti, Bals and Recas. The books sent as part of our primary work recently arrived. More acknowledgements should be coming shortly.

"Ten Tons of Tomes"

The container project is a go. Jason, the Peace Corps volunteer at Biblioteca Judeteana “Duiliu Zamfirescu” Focsani is helping to organize the project from their side of the pond.

(The photos to the right are examples of what I will be doing.)

It's the responsibility of those who will most benefit from the project to raise the money to pay for the transportation costs. With the import taxes/fees, shipping costs and incidental expenses - said incidental expenses fronted by yours truly, now a pensioner - it will probably amount to $4000 for a 20 ft. shipping container.

I finally found warehouse space through a local Greek Orthodox Church and I can move on moving accumulated books, as well as additional ones there. The big pain is my pick-up will only haul about 600 lbs. maximum and the warehouse is a 50 mile round trip. I need to find a small trailer nearby that I can borrow from time to time. So far I've made 4 trips with another planned for tomorrow.

In addition to the accumulated books I've been storing, I've found 2 used book stores that are enthusiastically allowing me to raid their basements and a publishing insider who will be provider a pile of "advance copies" from the last couple years.

The newspaper article drew some small book donations and perhaps 2 or 3 offers to host small book drives. I have requests in to other used bookstores to cull unsold stuff.

I'm also planning a trip to Chicago at the beginning of March to send off another batch of books towards the primary project of books for the other PCVs throughout Romania.