Scout Finch

I've seen that site and they make note that the PDF files are for THEIR TROOP ONLY. That seems like it might be how it is justified, the question is whether or not it's legal. Our troop has a private website, so it seems like that might fall under personal and educational use because it really would be accessible to only our troop. I'm wondering about the legality though. If it is legal it might be just what we need. Does anyone know?

I too am interested in this idea. One of our scout's dad is a librarian and would probably work with us if possible. BSA has said that they update 20% of the Merit Badge Pamphlets per year and that's pretty hard to keep up with. A lot of Library Collections are pretty out of date and their funding keeps getting chipped (and sometimes CHOPPED) away at. They may have a harder time helping with this than in the past.

The troop library seems like a good plan unless you have several working on the same MB all at once which is pretty common so digital versions would be helpful. On a campout the hard copy makes sense for anything you PLAN to work on, and the digital copy for things that come up spontaneously. As a merit badge counselor, I really want a hard copy rather than having to read over all that on the computer. I'm only in my 30s and yet, VERY much prefer to read PAPER over a screen, but to have a whole library on one device could be VERY valuable too.

$100 seems like a lot, but I like the idea of a subscription. That way updates are already included in the price. I don't want them to give up hard copies all together though. As a merit badge counselor, it's helpful to be able to make notes and such in my own copy. For presentations it would be helpful to have digital versions to pull from as well. Just think how much easier it could be to teach from.

If they only needed ONE book, that would be reasonable, but they need a $5 book for EACH merit badge, which is unreasonable. So even if they own their own device, to have to pay $5 every time you start a new Merit Badge can add up pretty quickly. Online or app availability is a good idea too. I hope they really are working on that, but they do seem a bit slow to keep up with technological advancements. They could have the Eagle Required available as a package and then offer the others at a low price like 50 cents or a $1 each.