I haven’t read it yet but consider it ordered.  Anyone read this one?

Now I’m no business major, but I’ve spent a lot of time trying to understand some business theory as Better World Books offers a unique opportunity to see something very exciting and new in the world of business from up close.  I always start my research projects on the Wikipedia and while you won’t feel like you have an MBA by the time you’re finished with the article, you will have some ideas of good terms to use in your triple bottom line research!

Triple Bottom Line

Social Enterprise

If you want to hear a little more about the topic, a full podcast of this forum will be available later this month!

Now I’m playing Scrabble with three students at Middlsex Community College in Edison, NJ, and let me tell you, despite their smiles, they’re rough customers.  Erin just laid down “Quell” on a triple word score for 45 points and is absolutely killing us.

Garima, Erin (hustler), Barum and Ham from MCC

I began my career with Better World Books at ALA Midwinter ’07. Without much in depth knowledge of our Library Discards & Donations Program I was thrown into the metaphorical library pool to sink or swim. Having recently returned from ALA Midwinter ’08 and reflecting on a full year of transition, change and overwhelming progress, I am filled with pride with how well I’ve stayed afloat. While I could go on and on about my own incredible competency (it’s review time so this forced arrogance is a result of having to justify ones existence or right to a pay increase, I’m not always like this), I can not ignore the amount of guidance, instruction, support and encouragement I have received from the stellar colleagues I have throughout the Better World Books family. This blog entry is a thank you to all of you for allowing me to be part of this incredible mission. I look forward to many more years at Better World Books!

As usual, we had a tasting of the local cuisine.  Christian and I even had a surprising run-in on our hotel elevator with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar who was in town promoting his most recent book On the Shoulders of Giants: My Journey Through the Harlem Renaissance!

Doesn’t it look good??

Philadelphia was littered with sculptures throughout the city.  You’re never quite sure what you will run into around the corner.  At the base of one of the buildings, were HUGE board game pieces.

Don’t crush me!!

And although I didn’t get a chance to visit the statue, Philadelphia is of course home to the one and only Rocky Balboa.

“Yo, Adrian! I bought a book off BetterWorld.com!”

I look forward to the next conference and seeing everyone again.  Thanks to those who stopped by our booth and I hope you had just as great a time as I did!

From Left to right pictured are Rod Risley (Executive Director of Phi Theta Kappa), Xavier Helgesen (one of the co-founders of Better World Books), Al Gore (former Vice President of the United States), Aaron King (Director of the Campus Division for Better World Books, and the guy writing this post), and David Murphy (CEO of Better World Books).

Now I know because I am standing behind Mr. Gore, I look like I was photoshopped into this photo.. but trust me, I was there, it is just a trick of the light. If this were a court of law, I would say “look, you can see the shadow from his shoulder on my suit jacket, I really was there!”

So, I would love to say that Al Gore, while contemplating his next initiative to help the environment, heard the news that Better World Books and Phi Theta Kappa were teaming up to run book drives on college campuses around the country, keeping books out of landfills, providing funding for Phi Theta Kappa chapters, and most importantly, raising money for literacy programs.

When Al Gore heard of this wonderful partnership, he immediately arranged a meeting with us to encourage us in our good work, and then took a photo with us.

Unfortunately, the above tale would be a fabrication;  yes, we do have a great partnership with Phi Theta Kappa, and yes we have saved millions of books from landfills, and raised a lot of money for Phi Theta Kappa and literacy too.. but Al Gore did not set up any meeting with us.

Mr. Gore was gracious enough to be one of the speakers at the Phi Theta Kappa conference in Nashville in April 2007, and there was a Photo Session Scheduled where a select group of conference attendees got to stand in line and cycle through for a Photo Op with Mr. Gore.   We had about 15 seconds to say hi and tell him about our program, but lets be honest, Mr. Gore met thousands of people that day… so lets just say I am not expecting any invites to his house for coffee anytime soon.

While we were waiting for our 15 seconds with Mr. Gore, we a got a chance to meet Kevin Sharp, country music star, cancer survivor, and inspirational speaker, another one of the presenters at the conference.  He had hosted his own photo op the previous day, and now got to experience the other side, waiting in line just behind us for the chance to meet Al Gore.

So let me close by saying: Mr. Gore, it was very nice to meet you, I won’t be offended if you don’t remember me, and thanks again for inventing the internet, allowing me to post articles like this.

I hope that Better World Books can continue to work with Phi Theta Kappa and all of our amazing partners to someday save enough books from landfills and raise enough money for literacy that Mr. Gore features us as a great way to help improve the world in whatever his next project is.

One of the things I most enjoy when going to a new city is the food!  During the GALA Reception on Thursday night, we were presented with barbeque, boiled shrimp, steamed shrimp, and a plethora of other goodies.  Although I’m not a big fan of oysters, it was a lot of fun standing around shucking and enjoying everyone’s company.

Pictured: Jacob Fu, Walter Sears, Dustin Holland, Christian Blue

Another great place we stopped in for brunch was Jestine’s Kitchen.  It was a great local place that had a line waiting to get in before it even opened.  The meatloaf and sweet tea were amazing!

I definitely look forward to going back next year.  Let me know if you have any suggestions on places I need to try.

Thanks to Corrie Marsh, Associate University Librarian at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, I learned that they are using RFID to indicate low tire tread, keep track of students and school buses, even pay for cover charges and drinks at bars in Barcelona & Miami.  That’s right, a bar owner in Barcelona has added an RFID reader that can charge your account for cover charges and drinks through an RFID tag surgically imbedded under your skin!  Check it out here www.txcdk.org/rfid.  To take it a step further, China is planning to issue over 10 million RFID identification cards to individuals and 3 million RFID readers to the police to assist in crime prevention.

Is RFID going too far?

Join the most creative and progressive leaders working to integrate families, communities and education at the 17th Annual National Conference on Family Literacy: “Literacy Grows Families and Communities.”

The event, a signature activity of the National Center for Family Literacy, is the largest and most comprehensive conference for educators, community leaders, philanthropists and government officials dedicated to family literacy.

Session topics will highlight innovative approaches to helping families achieve their goals through literacy. Speakers will include Loriene Roy, American Library Association; David W. Murphy, Better World Books; Dorothy Kauffman, Center for Applied Linguistics; Peter DeBenedittis, author and consultant; Karen L. Mapp, Harvard Graduate School of Education; Faith Rogow, Insighters Educational Consulting; Christopher J. Lonigan, Florida State University; and Cristina Jose-Kampfner, Latino Health Access.

The Conference will be held March 29 –31, 2008, in Louisville, Kentucky.

Online registration is available now! Brochures will be mailed in October. Visit www.famlit.org/conference for details.

We had a great time in the city when we did have some free time to spare. One evening, we had a great meal at Legal Sea Foods where the waitress actually recognized our company from the logo on our shirts!

Back at the show, we had the opportunity to introduce a number of our new program features. These and also answers to some of the most common questions asked are listed in the posting below.

Thanks again to everyone who stopped by our booth!  We hope to see you all soon!

Mary Murphy, Southeast Regional Director of Better World Books and Erica Chong from Guam, together at the Phi Theta Kappa International conference in Nashville, TN!

Lisa is incredibly passionate about literacy and after I spoke with the group she gave her own testimonial about the book drive! She shared that “working with Better World Books has been a rewarding experience.  Not only do we have the opportunity to witness the vast outpouring of generosity on our campus, but also to observe its far-reaching effects.”

Additionally, Lisa gave the group great advertising tips. Her chapter is holding a raffle in conjunction with the book drive. For every textbook a student donates they will give them a raffle ticket to be entered into a drawing for a prize to win a book store gift certificate. Out of the 660 dollars her chapter earned from last semester’s drive they are giving a 500 dollar scholarship to a deserving member and using the rest of the funds to purchase a bookstore gift certificate for their raffle. Not only will the raffle encourage more book donations, it will help to solidify their partnership with the bookstore!

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to present at the 2006 Annual Fall Hunger and Homelessness Conference at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.  This conference was attended by around 400 students from all around the country, and is actually the largest gathering of student leaders focused on hunger and homelessness issues.  I had a lot of fun, and was pleased to have the opportunity to connect with students from so many different schools.

For me, this was a singular experience because I actually attended this conference for the first time a number of years ago, when I was still a student myself.  I was, at that point, attending graduate school for Counseling.  Though I’d always been service-oriented, it wasn’t until later in my college career (very much through events like this conference) that I decided to give up the idea of counseling and focus my career in the non-profit/social venture realm.  I’ve always been very thankful to the folks at the National Student Campaign Against Hunger and Homelessness for introducing me to so many caring and like-minded individuals and organizations.  Such conferences give students a great gateway into getting more involved, and are also great ways that students can raise their own awareness about different issues.  It was a landmark day for me to actually be presenting at this conference, and I was glad to see such a great turnout for Better World Books.  Thanks to all the students that attended!  We’re looking forward to working with you.

In addition to my excitement about how ready and willing the Phi Theta Kappa members are to support our efforts in raising funds to promote literacy, I was also very grateful for the open and friendly reception that I was given. My experience at these leadership conferences has been both fun and rewarding for me personally. In Morgantown I was included in talks and team building exercises and then invited to the James Madison football game by one of the chapter members. At the Middle States conference in Dundalk I had the pleasure of listening to Sister Claire, a professor from Boston University, give a lecture on the state of education in the United States, and her insightful thoughts on the need for a paradigm change in the American educational system. It was an awesome and inspiring lecture.

I have greatly enjoyed being able to personally get to know the Phi Theta Kappans in the Southern Mid-Atlantic Region. It has been a great experience for me, and also has produced some great relationships that are dedicated to supporting our mission of promoting literacy around the world.

Thank you Phi Theta Kappa!