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Your Wednesday Author Interview: Pamela Ribon
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Wednesday, June 14, 2006
1:37:00 PM EDT
Hearing I Don't Wanna Grow Up -- Petra Haden and Bill Frisell
Normally for the Wednesday Author Interview I like to interview an author who has just had a book come out, but this week I'm doing something a little different and interviewing an author who isn't trying to sell her book to you (at the moment), but is trying to get you to donate a book instead.
The author is Pamela Ribon, who wrote the bestselling novel Why Girls are Weird a couple of years ago, and whose second novel, Why Moms are Weird, comes out later this summer. Ribon is also the proprietor of the incredibly popular Pamie.com, one of the oldest (and funniest) personal sites online. But today she's here to talk to you about the Dewey Donation System, an annual book drive she spearheads which each year encourages folks to donate books and other needed materials to needy library systems. Pamie's been doing this since 2003, although this is the first year the drive has its own name and Web site.
This year the Dewey Donation System is focusing on the libraries of Harrison County, Mississippi, which were devastated by Hurricane Katrina -- the storm wiped out entire library collections and has left the librarians there scrambling. In the four days since this year's donation drive started, folks around the US and the Internet have donated 450 books -- not a bad daily average of contributions.
And now, without further ado: Pamela Ribon.
1. Quick! Tell us a little bit about yourself and about the Dewey Donation System.
Quick? If there's anything I'm bad at, it's being brief. But I'll try. My name is Pamela Ribon, but most people online know me as pamie. You can thank my mom for the nickname. Back in 1994 I didn't think anyone on the Internet would ever find out who I was. I was wrong. Now only family, very close friends, and complete strangers call me by that name. I'm a writer/performer out in Los Angeles, by way of Austin, Texas, by way of several other states growing up. I learned to read before the age of two. This makes me love books in an unhealthy way. I rarely leave the house without one. I'm currently reading three books -- a novel, a graphic novel, and a self-help book. The last two are by-products of recently being in my thirties. I'm not exactly proud, but I'm trying to be very girl-power about it all.
The Dewey Donation System came to be because I'm an accidental activist. My high school years were spent sending money to several charity organizations, but being stuck outside Houston without a car (and pre-Internet -- you kids have it so lucky!) made it so that I was limited to expressing myself through underground newspapers. Once my website caught on (pre-blogs, back when we were called "Internet diaries" or "online journals"), I was able to start making a living off of my writing. One day, while waiting for my first novel to come out, I read an article on the Oakland Public Library, and how they'd lost their acquisition funds, and had resorted to Amazon wish lists to ask complete strangers to send new books to their shelves. I wrote an entry about the importance of libraries -- how everybody from tweens to crackheads need a book -- and asked everybody to send a book Oakland's way. Within a few weeks, hundreds of books arrived at their doorsteps, and the librarians (being good Bay Area activists) were able to get the nation looking their way.
That kind of response was overwhelmingly rewarding, and so I did it again the next year with San Diego after their libraries were hit by wildfires, and the year after that we sponsored a village in India post-Tsunami. This year, when Katrina hit, I was horrified with the devastation, and it hit even closer to home, as I'd spent a number of years in Mississippi. I love New Orleans as much as the next semi-Southern gal, but I knew Mississippi was getting lost in the media attention. I hoped I'd be able to send some help their way.
Enter my sweet friend Dave, who's a master of the Internet and one of the most brilliant businessmen I know. He asked if there was a way to link his charity, Tubey's Kids (from televisionwithoutpity.com), and mine. Over weird onion rings one night in Santa Monica, we hashed out the next wave for book donations -- an interactive site where librarians and potential donors couldcommunicate -- and the Dewey Donation System was born. Really, we figured out what Dewey would look like. But we also had big plans. Because those big plans take lots of time, and I like to have a book drive around May or June, we started with the Harrison County Book Drive. But the site will grow from here. And I'm hoping it brings a lot of attention to public libraries, because they are such an important part of the community.
2. Back in 2003, when you started your annual book drives, what sort of response were you expecting? How did it differ from the response you got?
I thought maybe fifty books. Maybe. Probably more like thirty. Some people sending money because I made them laugh. But the internet is filled with book-lovers and library lovers. As I have continually done, I underestimated the power of the internet. (The week after the book drive started, close friends of mine lost everything they had in a fire. These same people turned around and sent money and materials to complete strangers, helping in any way that they can, because their hearts are that big). When the librarians were sending pictures of their stores filled with boxes of books, and they got CNN's attention, and then Michael Moore recognizes ME in a crowd and shakes my hand... well, I realized just how big this thing had gotten, and how big it could potentially be. And I felt a great responsibility that I didn't want to disappoint.
3. Along with you, there are other well-known online personalities who have developed charities tailored after their own interests (for example: the Child's Play charity, which provides video games and toys to childrens' hospitals, coordinated by the creators of the Penny Arcade site). Are folks like you an early indicator of the future of philanthropy?
I think people who are fortunate enough to make any kind of living off of their websites, or people who are lucky enough to do what they love for a living, want to be able to use their powers for good, and not evil. I don't want to get all Oprah on you, but I look at what she's done, from early on I wanted to be able to be in that same situation. If I was ever in a position to influence, I wanted to be able to help. When I knew I was writing for an audience of book-lovers, it wasn't about getting them to buy my books-- it was about getting books purchased and into the hands of people who might not have been able to ever see those books.
4. How do you choose which libraries to focus on with any one drive? This is the fourth year you've been doing this -- are you finding that libraries are aware of who you are and are making their cases to you?
Unfortunately, I follow the sad stories. I don't find the libraries; the libraries get hit hard by something terrible. The Oakland Library was found by me surfing the web and reading Publisher's Weekly. But once the wildfires started in San Diego, I knew that was the next place. Same with the Tsunami. And in September, when Katrina hit, I was wishing for the spring so I could start helping. I got a lot of letters about the Steinbeck Library in Salinas, when it was about to be shut down. But luckily it received national attention. I do get letters from librarians and students getting their masters in library science. I had a help section on my blog for a year to notify people of these stories. These days there's a part of my website's forum where activists let people know about the causes they're working for. The most rewarding thing is watching the philanthropy spread, seeing other people get involved, and knowing that someone else got their community involved because they realized they could make a difference.
5. Libraries and reading clearly mean a lot to you. How do you see libraries changing in the future? Will they always be primarily about books? Or is that vision of what a library is changing even now?
Let me tell you about the library in downtown Los Angeles. It feels like a contemporary art museum. There's even a gift shop! There are restaurants, and coffee shops, and floors and floors of books. There's art on the walls and installations and statues, and on every floor there are workstations, comfy chairs, tables with outlets and lamps -- and free wifi. I was able to sit at a table and work for hours, with my ipod and a bottle of water, and when I wanted to take a break, I wandered three stacks over and found my own novel on the shelf. If that doesn't feel like home, I don't know what does.
The saddest thing about public libraries is how their hours have to be so limited, due to the amount of money allocated. On Sundays, the library closes at five. There are days of theweek -- entire weekdays -- when the libraries are shut down.When we're able to keep libraries open, inviting (this means finding a way that not everybody's using the free internet to look at porn), and a thriving part of the community, people will go there instead of spending three hours loitering at Barnes and Noble.
6. Tell us a favorite story involving a library (either from the book drive, or from your own past -- or both!)
Quick story. When I moved to a new city back when I was thirteen, the most depressing thing I ever saw was the town's library. I knew the town was small, but when I walked into the library and the new fiction section was ten books? I left that library crying. I remember shouting to my mother, "You took me to a place that has a bookmobile for a library!" And she laughed, even though she felt for me. Because she remembers when I was five, and would want to check ten books out of the library, and three days later we'd return them for ten more, because I'd already devoured them.
One more story: When I was nine I went on a field trip with my school to the Huntington Library. I was so excited to hear that we were visiting an enormous, famous library. I wish there was a photograph of my face when I saw the map of the library and realized there was no children's section.
The library is one of my favorite places on earth. The library. It is where I find peace, happiness, and hope. If I can do anything to perpetuate that feeling, I am eternally grateful. (Oooh, now I sound like Oprah.)
And from the book drive -- you just have to go back and read some of the letters, some of the stories people tell about how much libraries have meant to them.
My mom tells a story about when I was very small, and saw two deaf people talking to each other. I asked her how they were talking without using words, and she took me to the library and found a book on sign language. I was less than two years old, and because of that I don't remember not knowing the ASL alphabet. I can do it in my sleep. My mom taught me the importance of libraries before I was old enough to know what school was.
At my most broke moments, the library has been a savior, letting me escape from my problems and lose myself in stacks of books. Books I get to take home! Books I can reserve online at home! And they'll call me when the book arrives! It's like magic. And these days, when I want nothing but quiet and my thoughts, there isn't a place I know more welcoming and wonderful than a library.
-----
Let me hit that link again for you folks: The Dewey Donation System. Go check it out and find out how easy it is to donate a book, and then if you can, consider making a donation. And check out Pamie.com; you won't regret it.
Written by johnmscalzi Blog about this entry |
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1:37:00 PM EDT
Hearing I Don't Wanna Grow Up -- Petra Haden and Bill Frisell
Your Wednesday Author Interview: Pamela Ribon
Normally for the Wednesday Author Interview I like to interview an author who has just had a book come out, but this week I'm doing something a little different and interviewing an author who isn't trying to sell her book to you (at the moment), but is trying to get you to donate a book instead.
The author is Pamela Ribon, who wrote the bestselling novel Why Girls are Weird a couple of years ago, and whose second novel, Why Moms are Weird, comes out later this summer. Ribon is also the proprietor of the incredibly popular Pamie.com, one of the oldest (and funniest) personal sites online. But today she's here to talk to you about the Dewey Donation System, an annual book drive she spearheads which each year encourages folks to donate books and other needed materials to needy library systems. Pamie's been doing this since 2003, although this is the first year the drive has its own name and Web site.This year the Dewey Donation System is focusing on the libraries of Harrison County, Mississippi, which were devastated by Hurricane Katrina -- the storm wiped out entire library collections and has left the librarians there scrambling. In the four days since this year's donation drive started, folks around the US and the Internet have donated 450 books -- not a bad daily average of contributions.
And now, without further ado: Pamela Ribon.
1. Quick! Tell us a little bit about yourself and about the Dewey Donation System.
Quick? If there's anything I'm bad at, it's being brief. But I'll try. My name is Pamela Ribon, but most people online know me as pamie. You can thank my mom for the nickname. Back in 1994 I didn't think anyone on the Internet would ever find out who I was. I was wrong. Now only family, very close friends, and complete strangers call me by that name. I'm a writer/performer out in Los Angeles, by way of Austin, Texas, by way of several other states growing up. I learned to read before the age of two. This makes me love books in an unhealthy way. I rarely leave the house without one. I'm currently reading three books -- a novel, a graphic novel, and a self-help book. The last two are by-products of recently being in my thirties. I'm not exactly proud, but I'm trying to be very girl-power about it all.
The Dewey Donation System came to be because I'm an accidental activist. My high school years were spent sending money to several charity organizations, but being stuck outside Houston without a car (and pre-Internet -- you kids have it so lucky!) made it so that I was limited to expressing myself through underground newspapers. Once my website caught on (pre-blogs, back when we were called "Internet diaries" or "online journals"), I was able to start making a living off of my writing. One day, while waiting for my first novel to come out, I read an article on the Oakland Public Library, and how they'd lost their acquisition funds, and had resorted to Amazon wish lists to ask complete strangers to send new books to their shelves. I wrote an entry about the importance of libraries -- how everybody from tweens to crackheads need a book -- and asked everybody to send a book Oakland's way. Within a few weeks, hundreds of books arrived at their doorsteps, and the librarians (being good Bay Area activists) were able to get the nation looking their way.
That kind of response was overwhelmingly rewarding, and so I did it again the next year with San Diego after their libraries were hit by wildfires, and the year after that we sponsored a village in India post-Tsunami. This year, when Katrina hit, I was horrified with the devastation, and it hit even closer to home, as I'd spent a number of years in Mississippi. I love New Orleans as much as the next semi-Southern gal, but I knew Mississippi was getting lost in the media attention. I hoped I'd be able to send some help their way.
Enter my sweet friend Dave, who's a master of the Internet and one of the most brilliant businessmen I know. He asked if there was a way to link his charity, Tubey's Kids (from televisionwithoutpity.com), and mine. Over weird onion rings one night in Santa Monica, we hashed out the next wave for book donations -- an interactive site where librarians and potential donors couldcommunicate -- and the Dewey Donation System was born. Really, we figured out what Dewey would look like. But we also had big plans. Because those big plans take lots of time, and I like to have a book drive around May or June, we started with the Harrison County Book Drive. But the site will grow from here. And I'm hoping it brings a lot of attention to public libraries, because they are such an important part of the community.
2. Back in 2003, when you started your annual book drives, what sort of response were you expecting? How did it differ from the response you got?
I thought maybe fifty books. Maybe. Probably more like thirty. Some people sending money because I made them laugh. But the internet is filled with book-lovers and library lovers. As I have continually done, I underestimated the power of the internet. (The week after the book drive started, close friends of mine lost everything they had in a fire. These same people turned around and sent money and materials to complete strangers, helping in any way that they can, because their hearts are that big). When the librarians were sending pictures of their stores filled with boxes of books, and they got CNN's attention, and then Michael Moore recognizes ME in a crowd and shakes my hand... well, I realized just how big this thing had gotten, and how big it could potentially be. And I felt a great responsibility that I didn't want to disappoint.3. Along with you, there are other well-known online personalities who have developed charities tailored after their own interests (for example: the Child's Play charity, which provides video games and toys to childrens' hospitals, coordinated by the creators of the Penny Arcade site). Are folks like you an early indicator of the future of philanthropy?
I think people who are fortunate enough to make any kind of living off of their websites, or people who are lucky enough to do what they love for a living, want to be able to use their powers for good, and not evil. I don't want to get all Oprah on you, but I look at what she's done, from early on I wanted to be able to be in that same situation. If I was ever in a position to influence, I wanted to be able to help. When I knew I was writing for an audience of book-lovers, it wasn't about getting them to buy my books-- it was about getting books purchased and into the hands of people who might not have been able to ever see those books.
4. How do you choose which libraries to focus on with any one drive? This is the fourth year you've been doing this -- are you finding that libraries are aware of who you are and are making their cases to you?
Unfortunately, I follow the sad stories. I don't find the libraries; the libraries get hit hard by something terrible. The Oakland Library was found by me surfing the web and reading Publisher's Weekly. But once the wildfires started in San Diego, I knew that was the next place. Same with the Tsunami. And in September, when Katrina hit, I was wishing for the spring so I could start helping. I got a lot of letters about the Steinbeck Library in Salinas, when it was about to be shut down. But luckily it received national attention. I do get letters from librarians and students getting their masters in library science. I had a help section on my blog for a year to notify people of these stories. These days there's a part of my website's forum where activists let people know about the causes they're working for. The most rewarding thing is watching the philanthropy spread, seeing other people get involved, and knowing that someone else got their community involved because they realized they could make a difference.
5. Libraries and reading clearly mean a lot to you. How do you see libraries changing in the future? Will they always be primarily about books? Or is that vision of what a library is changing even now?
Let me tell you about the library in downtown Los Angeles. It feels like a contemporary art museum. There's even a gift shop! There are restaurants, and coffee shops, and floors and floors of books. There's art on the walls and installations and statues, and on every floor there are workstations, comfy chairs, tables with outlets and lamps -- and free wifi. I was able to sit at a table and work for hours, with my ipod and a bottle of water, and when I wanted to take a break, I wandered three stacks over and found my own novel on the shelf. If that doesn't feel like home, I don't know what does. The saddest thing about public libraries is how their hours have to be so limited, due to the amount of money allocated. On Sundays, the library closes at five. There are days of theweek -- entire weekdays -- when the libraries are shut down.When we're able to keep libraries open, inviting (this means finding a way that not everybody's using the free internet to look at porn), and a thriving part of the community, people will go there instead of spending three hours loitering at Barnes and Noble.
6. Tell us a favorite story involving a library (either from the book drive, or from your own past -- or both!)
Quick story. When I moved to a new city back when I was thirteen, the most depressing thing I ever saw was the town's library. I knew the town was small, but when I walked into the library and the new fiction section was ten books? I left that library crying. I remember shouting to my mother, "You took me to a place that has a bookmobile for a library!" And she laughed, even though she felt for me. Because she remembers when I was five, and would want to check ten books out of the library, and three days later we'd return them for ten more, because I'd already devoured them.
One more story: When I was nine I went on a field trip with my school to the Huntington Library. I was so excited to hear that we were visiting an enormous, famous library. I wish there was a photograph of my face when I saw the map of the library and realized there was no children's section.
The library is one of my favorite places on earth. The library. It is where I find peace, happiness, and hope. If I can do anything to perpetuate that feeling, I am eternally grateful. (Oooh, now I sound like Oprah.)
And from the book drive -- you just have to go back and read some of the letters, some of the stories people tell about how much libraries have meant to them.
My mom tells a story about when I was very small, and saw two deaf people talking to each other. I asked her how they were talking without using words, and she took me to the library and found a book on sign language. I was less than two years old, and because of that I don't remember not knowing the ASL alphabet. I can do it in my sleep. My mom taught me the importance of libraries before I was old enough to know what school was.
At my most broke moments, the library has been a savior, letting me escape from my problems and lose myself in stacks of books. Books I get to take home! Books I can reserve online at home! And they'll call me when the book arrives! It's like magic. And these days, when I want nothing but quiet and my thoughts, there isn't a place I know more welcoming and wonderful than a library.
-----
Let me hit that link again for you folks: The Dewey Donation System. Go check it out and find out how easy it is to donate a book, and then if you can, consider making a donation. And check out Pamie.com; you won't regret it.
Written by johnmscalzi Blog about this entry |
Add to del.icio.us | digg this
This entry has 3 comments: (Add your own)
-
Thanks for the tip, John! What a great idea! (and free shipping if you spend $25 at Amazon!) I sent three of my favorite books to Mississippi. (and I'll be pimping the site on my own blog in a bit)
Jamilyn
http://parkhopper.blogspot.com -
The library in Monponsett was donated entirely by the Bulgers, a local crime family who had a summer cottage on the lake. If your book was over a month late, you'd wake up with a horse's head in your bed.
6/15/06 7:22 PM
hugs,natalie