|
Dear Friend of Reader To Reader, I hope you enjoy this newsletter about the Reader To Reader Book Project. Our success is very much due to your donations of books, postage money, and most of all your generous spirit. Please forward this newsletter and help us spread the word. This month I'd like to share a letter we received from Tohono O'odham Community College, a tribal college in Sells, Arizona that we help. The college serves the Tohono O'odham Nation and is working hard to gain their accreditation. One of their requirements is to build their library, which currently numbers a paltry 3,000 books. Contrast that with Harvard University's 13.5 million volumes and you can see that they have a long ways to go to even build a modest library to serve their students. Here is their letter:
I am pleased that this letter speaks so directly to what we are constantly striving to do well -- sending schools the specific books they need. Each school's needs are different, so we correspond with them to understand the categories and reading levels they require. Sometimes, when we first contact a school, they tell us that they have received donations before from well meaning people but all they have ended up with is outdated books, in poor condition that then become a solid waste problem for them rather than a solution. Only after receiving the first box of books from Reader To Reader do they see the difference. How do we do it? First, we work with every school to define their individual needs. Even schools in the same city may have different priorities based on their curriculum. For example, some schools want classics while other schools are more concerned with building their poetry, history or science sections. In addition to building particular categories, the schools email us lists of particular books they need for their courses and we scour our collection for them. In the case of college libraries, we are able to take advantage of the fact that their catalogues are now online. We are able to check individual books against their catalogues in order to send them books that they do not already have. We also spot books that are years overdue and replace these lost books. Our work is an interactive process where we are always learning more about the needs of each school. We constantly seek their feedback so we can serve them better. It's not the fastest process, as anyone who has ever seen me pouring through stacks of books for one more "just the right book" before a box is shipped can attest. But it comes from a belief that each book is a special gift that has the potential to inspire and change someone's life. Speaking of schools needing books, we have requests for the following titles. These books are urgently needed for fall classes and we need multiple copies. The books we need are:
If you have a copy of any of these titles to donate send them to:
Reader To Reader, Inc. Here are highlights of just some of our recent book shipments: Tohono O'odham Community College, Sells, AZ
Durant High School, Durant, MS
Lee High School, Marianna, AR
Dine College, Tsaile, AZ
Bridge Academy, Springfield, MA
Marvell High School, Marvell, AR
John Essex high School, Demopolis, AL
Roosevelt Elementary School, Compton, CA
And that's just the tip of the iceberg. We've shipped much more. Special thanks to June Turcotte for volunteering her time to collect, organize and box up books. Until next month, Sincerely, David Mazor Reader To Reader To be added to this newsletter please email dmazor@readertoreader.org |