Genesis of the Marketplace
The NAMLE Marketplace is a project of the National Association for Media Literacy Education in collaboration with Destination Education, Inc. (DEI), an educational fulfillment service based in Lincoln, Nebraska.
It incorporates and expands the Center for Media Literacy's former Resource Catalog, called by many the "illustrated bibliography" of media literacy education.
The Center's annual catalog chronicled the evolution of media literacy pedagogy and practice from 1990 to 2005. NAMLE gratefully accepts the baton from CML in order to continue and expand this service to the media literacy community, not just in the US but around the world -- wherever packages can be delivered!
Participating Partners
NAMLE is a national membership organization with a mission of "advancing media literacy education in the United States." Disseminating the Core Principles of Media Literacy 
Education and organizing the every-two-year National Media Education Conference (NMEC) are two ways we accomplish our mission.
We've seen participants at each NMEC flock to the conference bookstore to select the high quality resources for professional development and teaching displayed there. The NAMLE Marketplace now offers its members the convenience of a virtual bookstore with the ability to order online 24/7.
To design and coordinate the Marketplace, NAMLE is pleased to have the experienced hand of Elizabeth Thoman, founder of the Center for Media Literacy and manager of the Center's catalog and distribution service for 15 years. Please contact her (Marketplace@amlainfo.org) with your feedback or suggestions of additional products, especially new titles that the Marketplace might help to launch.
Destination Education, Inc., owned and operated by Karen and Steve Lenzen, provides all the fulfillment services necessary to process orders:
- purchasing inventory,
- billing and payments,
- packing and shipping.
They can handle purchase orders, credit cards, checks and PayPal. Steve and Karen have extensive experience in educational materials distribution and AMLA is pleased that the day to day details of the Marketplace are in DEI's capable hands.
Please contact Steve or Karen (amla@shopdei.com) with any concerns related to placing or processing your order. Please be aware that this arrangement means that if you purchase with a credit card, your statement will report a transaction not from NAMLE but from "PayPal: Destination."
How the Marketplace Works
- Although managed for NAMLE by Elizabeth Thoman, the Marketplace website is physically located on Destination Education's website: shopdei.com. Both sites were created by Aijalon, Inc. a web development firm in Lincoln. Nebraska.
- Resource materials for the NAMLE collection are selected by Thoman with the assistance of knowledgeable Board members and other colleagues in the media literacy community. A more formal committee structure may evolve as the project grows
- The principle criteria for selection is whether or not the resource aligns pedagogically with NAMLE's Core Principles of Media Literacy Education.
- Other criteria include the quality of the product's manufacturing as well as its availability at a reasonable retail cost and wholesale discount.
- The site features a sophisticated coding system for every product, thus making multiple search options possible. The "wish list" allows you to mark and store titles you'd like to consider on your next visit, whether that's tomorrow or six months from now.
- Customer Comments – complete the loop by sharing your experience with various curriculum materials and your ideas for using specific resources in the classroom. Your comments will help others, especially new and inexperienced teachers, make the right choices for their goals in their classroom.
Benefits
Through royalties paid to NAMLE, all purchases, though handled by DEI, directly benefit NAMLE and its members. In setting up the Marketplace, the NAMLE Board of Directors voted to pass along half of all profits to NAMLE members in the form of a 5% discount and the cost of shipping. The other half supports the work needed to research new products and add them to the collection.
As you become familiar with the resources available and those you wish to purchase, you'll find that even a 5% discount adds up over the course of a year. But even more importantly, NAMLE members now have access to a valuable service that will improve the practice of media literacy education by:
- helping members learn about and have access to, high quality teaching resources, regardless of their geographical location.
- creating a market for the development and dissemination of media literacy resources to be developed by publishers and producers - as well as members themselves.
- stimulating cross curricular conversation about many issues in the field of media literacy education.
We invite you to visit the online store often and pass along the Marketplace URL to those who may be potential customers.
www.AMLAmarketplace.org
or
www.namle.net/marketplace