Our DVD Donation campaign: help put the DVD in a Library near you

[Carissa]

And now for the first ugly response I have received, this one from Oklahoma:

Absolutely not. Where we live, our local cowboys would rope them, drag them through the cactus, sagebrush and soapweeds and leave 'em for the coyotes.

Wow...That's awful.  :-[  It makes me want to report them to the "Hatewatch" website.

[Marge_Innavera]

Wheatfields, that was the whole message.  I do think that the message reflects the librarian's own opinion and bias.  The message was terse without even the slightest sign of gratitude for an offer of a donation or even an expression of regret for the homophobia of her community.  I might also point out that in my e-mail to libraries, I do not make any mention of homosexuals or homosexuality.  I simply offer the DVD, request that it be placed in circulation, and request a bookplate recognizing the Ultimate Brokeback Forum.  The librarian in question responded in a manner that was decisive and intimidating---for all she knows, I could reside in her community. 

The librarian was making a reference to a violent hate crime that she might justify as being a "joke".

That does need to be answered. It can be a reasoned and dignified answer; but IMO to let the answer stand unchallenged would be to imply agreement. 

[Daphne and Chloe]

And now for the first ugly response I have received, this one from Oklahoma:

Absolutely not. Where we live, our local cowboys would rope them, drag them through the cactus, sagebrush and soapweeds and leave 'em for the coyotes.

That response literally does scare me. I'm sure this individual is raising children too.

[DCLuke]

And now for the first ugly response I have received, this one from Oklahoma:

Absolutely not. Where we live, our local cowboys would rope them, drag them through the cactus, sagebrush and soapweeds and leave 'em for the coyotes.

That response literally does scare me. I'm sure this individual is raising children too.

Please see Dave Cullen's statement in the May 10 Daily Sheet for an update on how this situation was handled.  It has a happy ending and I could not be more pleased with the result.  Thanks to everyone for their concern and support!

[Daphne and Chloe]

Oh thank you. I was not aware of that. I'm still new and finding my way around the forum. I will now be a frequent viewer of The Daily Sheet.

[Dave Cullen]

I want to VERY belatedly offer my thanks to everyone who has been involved in this campaign.

Special thanks cactusgal, sharyn, and exlibris for leading the project. And of course to Pete, for overseeing the leaders and keeping me up-to-date regularly, and passing my ideas to the group.

And thank you to everyone who has donated DVDs, called libraries, or donated money. When I talk to Pete, I can't believe how much spadework has gone on in this campaign.

Believe me, after years of freelancing, and quite a few political campaigns, I know how soulcrushing it can be to cold call: asking and asking and asking. I don't know how you guys do it.

I meant to write this message last week--and I've been feeling I should forever--but then the Oklahoma library thing came up and I was all the more invigorated about how important this was.

And I was amazed to see lucas had contacted more than 150 libraries in one state. Maybe I shouldn't admit this out loud, but I don't think I could have done that. Apparently several of you have lists that long.  I don't know where you guys get that kind of persistence, but I'm very grateful that you do.

And I know that's just one part of it. This is a huge logistical undertaking, and I know it's just one library at a time, but it adds up to a huge difference.

This project is very near and dear to my heart. I've had my hands full with so many things, and so it has been great to have Pete handling things--and assembling a great team of leaders--so that things have been going along great here and I'm afraid I've been absent. I tend to go where they need me, and you guys don't seem to need me. (i'm from chicago--"you guys" means everyone, in case it wasn't clear.) But I'm always keeping an eye on the project, and you keep making me smile. Thanks.

[amdaz]

Jan,

I forgot to mention to you that I sent out 1 DVD to Tulsa City/County Library System.
c/o Myles Jaeschke.

Dean

Thats 4 from me. If you still have a state we haven't donated to yet I'll be happy to make it 5.
Just IM me.

Thanks

[davideo321]

After too many weeks of computer malfunction, have returned to a heartening swoop of progress. Makes the head swim. Utterly inspiring, and oh, so important. Salud, all of you.

Question: Them that wishes to participate in the library program, but can only send a check, to where and whom should they be directed, and if it's on another post on the site, kindly direct, please, thank you.

Seriously, it's an amazing thing. The Oklahoma library saga could be a movie in itself.

Hmmmmm.....

[sunspot]

I'm probably just an idiot and can't find this information for myself here at the site, but how many DVD's have we donated so far, and how many libraries are currently sitting on our list awaiting a donation?  Is there some page or site we can go to that keeps track of all this?  I think it might be a great thing to have in order to solicit more donations and show what's been accomplished so far.

It might also be great if it tracked which libraries already had the Close Range book, the Brokeback book, the Story to Screen book and the DVD.  Ideally, I'd like to get copies of each into at least the mid-sized libraries on the list . . . I guess that's another piece of information that would need to be tracked, the size of each library.

[CactusGal]

Sunspot,

We appreciate your interest. 

In the DVD's to Library Campaign, our members have donated to close to 600 libraries in the US, Canada, Bahamas and Europe.  You can see a list of libraries that have received donations by going to our Master List at:

http://davecullen.com/forum/index.php?topic=3149.0

Right now we are scraping the bottom of the barrel as far as donations are concerned.
We are still accepting donations via PayPal by going to:

http://www.davecullen.com/brokebackmountain/adcampaign.html

Hope this helps.

Jan, Team Leader, DVD to Libraries Campaign

[Marge_Innavera]

My impression of homophobia that I've encountered is much more veiled. They simply ignore your email so that you don't have any evidence against them. 

Just a suggestion:

You might want to do a follow-up and see if they are ignoring you or just didn't see your email. One of the people I contacted finally replied with a very positive response and an apology: his spam filter sent my message directly to the "bulk" folder. That's happened to me in my own email account with newsletters I signed up for but the Norton filter read as spam.

Not to say no one would do what you described, but it might be worth checking.

[DCLuke]

I have been contacting libraries in Kentucky on behalf of a donor who is interested in placing DVDs in that state.  The work has been slow going, but for a good reason---I have discovered that most libraries already have a copy of BBM in their collection.  I am heartened by the number of small, rural Kentucky libraries that added the film to their collection soon after its release.  Whenever possible, I search the online catalogs of libraries and judging by the number of DVDs that are checked out or on hold, I can tell that the film has been well received in Kentucky.

Today I heard from a librarian in Kentucky.  Her library already has two copies of the film, but she is interested in purchasing two additional copies to donate to libraries in need of the DVD.  She expressed gratitude for the campaign and commented on how well the film has been received by librarians in her state. 

[graylockV]

Sunspot,

We appreciate your interest. 

In the DVD's to Library Campaign, our members have donated to close to 600 libraries in the US, Canada, Bahamas and Europe.  You can see a list of libraries that have received donations by going to our Master List at:

http://davecullen.com/forum/index.php?topic=3149.0

Right now we are scraping the bottom of the barrel as far as donations are concerned.
We are still accepting donations via PayPal by going to:

http://www.davecullen.com/brokebackmountain/adcampaign.html

Hope this helps.

Jan, Team Leader, DVD to Libraries Campaign

I assume that a deluxe "Director's Cut" DVD of BBM will eventually be released by Focus, and that many - maybe most - members of this forum will want the deluxe version.  That means that many of us will have copies of the first DVD version available to donate to libraries.  So I hope that, while this thread and campaign may have slowed down, it will spring back up to life in hopefully a few months when many of us will have used copies available for donation.  Most libraries will accept used DVDs that are in good condition.

Just a thought.

[peteinportland]

We're not going anywhere. We get messages every week from people who have made a recent donation.

That is a great thought about donating used copies.

Pete

[peteinportland]

Just a quick thanks to DC Luke and Thunder 88 for donations this past week to the library campaign. We are still going on this campaign (recently we were able to place another 30 videos from a member donation).

Thanks to all. Keep donating those DVDs when you can!

Pete