Societal norms, communication modalities, technology, globalization, economics…our entire life experience is changing more rapidly than any one person or organization can keep up with.

The population demographics between communities just 5 miles apart are vastly different. The effect of the covid isolation years on our kids and teens will be long lasting, and has had a domino effect. The economic fragility of our current government structure is leaving long-standing programs un-funded. The rapidly accelerating “easy and now” culture is changing how folks access and use books.

There are so many people out there, who have knowledge, experience, insight. There are so many resources, so many books, so many people who want to volunteer. Right now, all of these groups, educators, resources, are operating in isolation. And that has worked for a long time. People know what their own community or target group needs, so they concentrate their efforts on serving their own community.

But now, in this changing world, we need to join together. We need to coordinate, share resources, knowledge, ideas. This is where we come in.

Books in Hand sees a vital need, an unfilled niche, and we will strive to fill it. Our goal is to help with this coordination. To help create a network between all of the valuable people and organizations doing this work. Our goal is to create an easy way for one group to say “This isn’t working” and another group to say “We have a solution to that!” For one group to say “We have too much of this” and another group to say “We need exactly that!”

What does that mean in practicality? Well, to start, it means forming personal connections. Meeting people. Learning. Finding out how it all works now. Figuring out where the gaps are, and where the excesses. Starting a wee, little distribution network between various organizations. Accepting modest amounts of books, and redistributing them.

Later, it will grow. The communication network will become formalized with an online forum and database system. There will be teams of volunteers, who move books around the Bay Area, based on demographic need. Maybe, at some point, there will even be a brick-and-mortar warehouse, where anyone can donate any amount of books, and where any end-user organization or educator can come and pick up hundreds or thousands, when they need them.