Surplus Texts and Journals for Abroad — a Canadian Program

Extract

We wish to report briefly on a program for sending donated astronomical books and journals to overseas institutions that have not been able to acquire them in other ways. The program is being sponsored for a trial year by the Canadian Astronomical Society (CASCA), in co-operation with the Canadian Organization for Development through Education (CODE), which has generously offered to pay for the shipments to some countries, mostly in Africa and the Caribbean.

We have been soliciting donations from among the membership of CASCA for materials surplus to their needs, and have offered these through the Newsletter of IAU Commission 46, the IAU Bulletin, and Colloquium 105. Our efforts have been successful, and at the time of writing, about half the journal runs and texts, and almost all of the monographs available at the time of the Colloquium have found recipients. We are gratified by this result, as we had been unsure of the usefulness of what we were doing. Discussions at the Colloquium have given us additional reassurance in this regard.