Better World Books

http://www.betterworldbooks.com/

Did you ever wonder what happened to all the books that the library discards?  Before Xavier Helgesen and Christopher 'Kreece' Fuchs came up with the brilliant idea of Better World Books, they were often boxed up and languished in backrooms and basements or even (horrors) put out on the curb with the trash.  According to their website, Xavier and Kreece were in search of ‘life plan’ after graduating from the University of Notre Dame when they began selling textbooks online.  They discovered that there were plenty of unloved and unwanted books across the country that needed to be re-purposed.  They began collecting books (from everywhere) and either selling them online or giving them to organizations that desperately needed books.  Pprofits they made from selling books went into funding literacy programs like Books for Africa, Invisible Children and Worldfund.    Libraries also receive a percentage of the book sales for the books they donated.
Their plan was enormously successful.  To date they have raised over $9 million for libraries and literacy programs and collected 48 million unwanted books.  That’s 48 million books doing good, right now, across the planet.  They currently work with 2,000 libraries across the country (as well as colleges and universities) to collect books that need new homes.  Because they also care about the planet (I know, they seems too good to be true) they balance their carbon emissions by buying Renewable Energy Certificates from 3Degrees (a carbon balancing service provider).  And, of course, there are the 8,000 tons of books they have kept out of the landfill.
Just when I thought they should put their feet up and take vacation, they started a new program.  LEAP stands for Literacy and Education in Action and  is a grant giving program that funds specific literacy ventures around the world. Each grant project is listed on their site with exact details of how they are improving the world.  Better World has awarded $125,000 to organizations working to improve literacy.  Groups like Feed the Children, Room to Read and The Robinson Community Learning Center have posted their ambitious projects for readers to follow.
So the next time you buy a book don’t even think about going anywhere else.  Better World Books is one stop do-gooder shopping: raising money for literacy, creating jobs, saving books from clogging the landfill and providing books for readers around the world.  Truly inspiring work.

The Quiet Room

There are certain times when the library is indispensable.  Often these are times in life when their is a pause in the action and we emerge from our ‘busy’ness to rediscover the joy of reading- but sometimes our peaks in library attendance are due to more pressing matters.  In particular I am remembering a wintry time when I lived in a very small house in with a very active toddler.  I was not working full time, in order to have more mommy time, and therefore had zero funds for external toddler supervision.  There were three places that saved me from going crazy:  the laundrymat, the playplace at McDonalds and the library.  Hannah and I revelled in our local library and made library trips religiously (we were always testing supplemental branches for wild-child friendliness).  

The Middletown Library on West Main Road in Middletown, RI, was an oasis, definitely designed by someone who knew that generations do not always get along when forced to mix in public spaces.  The children’s room had a separate parking area and entrance.  It was closed off from the main library with solid (probably sound proof) doors that mischievous hands could not open and bolt through and had its own circulation desk.  Completely self contained.  It was a physical safety zone full of equally rambunctious children.  Hannah’s favorite part of the room was the corner with the giant Dr. Seuss characters (they were as big as she was) that she could re-arrange and read to and the Playschool barn (the one that ‘moos’ when you close the gate).  She would play happily, strewing pigs and chicken across the rug while I caught my breath and peacefully browsed through beautiful picture books, accumulating a giant stack to bring home to our tiny cottage.

by Nancy Agafitei

In Harris County Texas (surrounding Houston) they have turned the pecking order around - instead of having a noisy children’s room isolated from a quiet library, they have “quiet rooms” (no talking, typing, eating, ringing, singing, buzzing, sipping, etc.) walled off in certain areas of their bustling libraries.  Harris County is the largest county in Texas (3 millionish people) and the 3rd largest county in the US and their libraries have it all going on:  video gaming rooms, family nights, blood drives, film festivals, Internet cafes, chess club, knitting groups, tech training and, get this, Barbara Bush and her poodle Mini even stopped by a few weeks ago to read to a group of kids.  Hand me my ten gallon hat - I’m going to Harris County, and I’m bringing a whole bunch of kids with me (and leaving them outside my quiet room).  

I love Texas because Texas is future-oriented, because Texans think anything is possible. Texans think big - Senator Phil Gramm