From time to time we have reported on the program for placing over 4,500 copies of the Spanish translation of The Urantia Book in libraries and institutions throughout Latin America. Coordinating this effort has been an enormous endeavor. Urantia Foundation Staff, Foundation Representatives, and nearly fifty volunteers in Mexico and Central and South American countries have been working on this project.
In addition to complex administrative, invoicing, and accounting work by Foundation staff, the project has required many hours of research on numerous aspects such as determining fair and appropriate quantities of books to be allotted to the different countries. It also has involved working with local nonprofit organizations and government officials to reduce import costs, and recruiting and coordinating volunteers who have been receiving and storing books.
Volunteers have worked diligently to help Foundation staff find efficient, reliable, and economical methods of distributing large quantities of books for noncommercial purposes. Each country has its own import regulations and library systems, which greatly complicates the coordination of this project. Our volunteers have spent many hours researching their national library systems in order to find the most efficient ways to place these books. They have also been preparing library directories and maps that will facilitate the actual placement of the books in each individual library. This has been a wonderful opportunity forSpanish speaking reader s to serve their local communities and plant valuable seeds for the fifth epochal revelation.
Foundation Field Representative Mark Bloomfield, who has placed thousands of books in libraries throughout India and in other Asian countries, is working with local volunteers to place books in Latin American libraries. His techniques are simple: He personally visits with librarians, explains the book, and highlights the value it could have in their country. These methods have proved highly effective.
Mark began this program of placing books in Latin American libraries in Mexico lastSeptember. Simultaneously Colombian readers began placing books in Colombia. The Urantia Association of Mexico is placing books in Mexican prisons that were supplied by Urantia Foundation under this program. As of mid-February, 700 books have been placed in Mexican libraries, 500 in Argentina, 260 in Colombia, and 100 in Uruguay. Readers in Spain have recently requested that Urantia Foundation conduct a library placement program in that country as well.
Urantia Foundation absorbs travel expenses and other volunteer expenses, as well as the costs for books, shipping, import duties, and the staff resources needed to coordinate this project. Because of a decline in large gifts, the Foundation's 2004 budget is very tight. The lack of funds could make it impossible for us to complete the project.
Sales of El Libro de Urantia in Latin American have grown dramatically in the past few years. In fact, in the first ten years of publication, sales of the Spanish translation were ten times higher than the number of books sold from 1955 to 1965, the first ten years after The Urantia Book was published. Latin America is ready for the revelation.
The books are in place and ready to be distributed. Urantia Foundation's Field Representative is in South America, and other volunteers are lined up and ready to go. We urgently need funds to allow them to continue.