Dear Ungluers,

The first three weeks of Unglue.it have been a whirlwind for us. We're incredibly gratified to have had over a thousand people sign up as ungluers, and to have received over 230 campaign pledges. Our most popular campaign, Oral Literature in Africa, has reached 43% of its $7500 campaign goal. That's amazing, but we have just 2 weeks to make up the other 57%. With your help that's a goal that's definitely in reach.

Once we have a first success, we'll be able to generate press coverage as something real, more than just a dreamy idea. We'll get more book lovers to join us if we can unglue our first book; then certainly a second book is not so impossible. And if we have two unglued books, then maybe 4 books is not so unthinkable. And more authors will think about getting their books unglued. Another publisher or two will take notice. Could we unglue 10 books? Maybe...but it's all up to you.

For ungluers living in Southern California or attending the American Library Association meeting in Anaheim, I'm offering a special incentive for you to participate as a leader in the world of ungluification. We're inviting 8 ungluers making $250 or more in pledges to be my guest at a special dinner (at my favorite restaurant) in Anaheim on June 23. Use the "support" button on any of your favorite campaign books, then email me (eric@gluejar.com) to claim your invitation.

We can only succeed by working together on this. We're extremely grateful for your all of your pledges, tweets, likes, moral support and word of mouth.

- Eric and the Unglue.it team

Campaign updates

Big news on the campaign to unglue early reader set Cat and Rat.  First, the rights holder has dropped the price; it will now cost only $25000 to release the book under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license and help kids worldwide learn to read.  This will allow people to make adaptations, such as translating the books into local languages.  Rights holder Melinda Thompson of Budding Reader explains the advantages of the Share-Alike license in a comment on her campaign.

Open Book Publishers has shared some links to help us learn more about Ruth Finnegan and her work.  First, you can hear an audio recording of Finnegan's original field work, preserving songs in the Limba language.  Second, read about the work the World Oral Literature Project does preserving threatened languages.  WOLP director Mark Turin is offering his time discussing oral literature and preservation with you as a campaign premium; we're grateful for their support.

Unglue.it updates

You've been giving us lots of feedback since launch.  We really appreciate hearing what works and what doesn't, and have made a few dozen changes -- mostly minor, some not so minor -- to address your feedback: handling login glitches, adding an About section to explain Unglue.it more clearly to new viewers, grammar and styling fixes.  Thanks, and keep telling us how we can improve!

We've been building out our notification system.  You can now be notified not only when campaigns finish and when you pledge, but when people comment on books you've wishlisted, when rights holders change the terms of the campaign, and more.  You can see your notifications at Unglue.it.

Finally, we've gotten some great press coverage.  Highlights include the Huffington Post, Boing Boing, Inside Higher Education, 
School Library Journal, and Habrahabr (it's the Russian equivalent of Slashdot).  As always, if you are -- or you know -- a member of the press who'd like to cover us, check out our press page or email us, press@gluejar.com.

A challenge

One of our favorite things about Unglue.it is the support we've gotten from librarians, and the chance to support libraries with open-access books in return.  Now a librarian has upped the ante.  We believe the Leddy Library (Windsor, Ontario, Canada) is the first library to pledge support to a campaign.  Librarian Mita Williams says, "it is difficult to think of less risky experiment for an organization", and she will increase her personal pledge when a second library supports a campaign.  So, how about it?  Will you hold her to it?

As Eric blogged, we made some matches.  Lighting them is up to you.

The Unglue.it team
Follow us on Twitter: @unglueit
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