| Earthworm books was started as a socially responsible company in the book business and to meet the needs of especially for those with small budgets, for people in smaller towns and rural areas with little or poor access to good books and in general to promote reading and good books. These principles have been very much applied to our efforts to serve libraries and librarians. One of the important contributions Earthworm made when it was started was in helping librarians access and stock good quality books. We were sensitive to institutions that had small budgets, schools that tried to stock good books and those based in non-metropolitan locations who wished to have a library of good books.
We started the principle of pre-selecting books and had specialists in different fields (not only from within the Earthworm Group, where such resources are available but also from the large network that Earthworm is fortunate to have) to select and recommend books. Many third rate publishers who publish high priced books to make money through library sales were black listed and their books never stocked. Only quality publishers and books that really contributed to new thinking and knowledge in an area, or brought new, fresh and critical perspectives especially from smaller publishers and civil society organizations were painstakingly sourced and supplied. This contributed to a new awareness on accessing and stocking good books (see Conversations) which we are happy to say other bookshops that came later on are imitating. Imitation is the best compliment?
In the pre-Internet world whatever we did was very much appreciated. We are aware that there is a sea change now with online sources, resources and access to a host of sites about books and publishing, online reviews and what not. We see our challenge in not only being faithful to our original constituency - people in smaller towns and rural areas with little or poor access to good books but also exploring the full potential of this cyber context while also addressing the digital divide. Even with all this mushrooming growth in online activity, there is undoubtedly a huge digital divide, not just in a sense of rich and poor but in terms of language, location, age and individual access to the World Wide Web. We will constantly strive as we go online to also address this problem and see what innovative contributions we can offer.
As we develop, learn and grow on this front, we will keep you informed through our website. Make sure you visit our website often and send us your feedback. |
