Three weeks ago today was the storm that flooded the Louisville Free Public Library. In that time we have raised over $3,200 in the name of the Library Society of the World. Over 100 of you have donated. Thank you. If you’d like to donate now, please do:

We got Boing Boinged. Louisville Public Media interviewed Greg Schwartz and me about the flood and the fundraiser and ran a radio news story with audio clips from us both (that link isn’t working right now, but I’m pretty sure it’s the right one).

Andy Woodward has started the LFPL Blogathon to stir up some more interest in the fundraiser. Please go to the lfplblogathon wiki and sign up to participate.

This is all fantastic.

But when we started all this, I kind of stuck my neck out. I said we’d raise $5,000. Which makes us still about $1,800 short.

So if you meant to donate, but haven’t yet, please do it now. If you have already donated, thanks very much. I’m planning to bug my co-workers one more time, and here I am bugging you. If there are people you can send my way this last week, please do so.

If you aren’t sure if you want to donate, consider this: you could win fabulous prizes!

Shortly after September 1, we’ll have a drawing. Or multiple drawings. We haven’t really got this figured out yet. But know that Abigail Goben is giving away three skeins of “luscious” Black Forest Malabrigo yarn, Amy Buckland is donating libpunk merch, and Nicole Dettmar has donated a lovely LSW Cod of Ethics mug.

As if those incentives weren’t enough, photographer Jamie Powell Sheppard has offered to donate six prints of photographs of the Louisville Main Library (seen above). Every donor to the LSW effort will have a chance to win one of those classic-looking prints.

So. Please donate. Please mention to other people that they can donate. And maybe you’ll win cool stuff!

If you’d rather send a check, send it to the Library Society of the World Clubhouse, PO Box 7893, Colorado Springs CO 80933. Make the check payable to Steve Lawson.

This money goes into my personal accounts and then I will write a check to LFPL. If you don’t like that idea (and if you don’t know me, I don’t blame you), here is the information for making a donation direct to the LFPL Library Foundation:

The Library Foundation
Attn: Flood
301 York St.
Louisville, KY 40203
(502) 574-1709