A Kickstarter for Libraries?

This past week, I was participating in a strategic planning session for a Library Agency called Califa -

It was a great session, and we came away from the meeting with some really good ideas and a good sense of direction.

In the course of the day, one of my colleagues mentioned this interesting web site called Kickstarter. Kickstarter is a crowdsourcing, fundraising web site - you have an idea for a project, you know how much it costs, so how do you get the funding? Kickstarter gives you a platform to share your idea and ask for support. If people like your idea, they give you money within a timeframe. It is a really interesting web site - many of the projects listed are creative - documentaries or short films, interesting inventions, and lots more. (There is even a project for chocolate 20 sided dice - though I can't imagine that the dice would last very long!)

But it does get you thinking -

Fundraising can be really tough right now. There are so many worthy causes, and so many needs to be met. Where do you put your money? Kickstarter is definitely an option, that let's you see a wide range of worthy projects. As a Library that is looking to raise money and support, I really like the idea of having a service where you could test ideas for new services or products, and see if there was any support for the idea.

The idea of a Kickstarter for libraries came up at the planning session, and I think that is a terrific idea. I can see this working for all kinds of things...