Wisconsin Library Stories

Middleton Library Director, Pamela Westby, is helping collect children's books for the African Library Project which partners with volunteers in African comunities to create small libraries for schools and villages.

Her efforts in this area resulted from a conversation she had with one of her library patrons whose daughter, currently working for the Peace Corps in South Africa, is involved in a project to help students obtain the literacy skills that will lead to better jobs and a higher quality of life for them in the future.

The collected books will go to Lesotho, where the Peace Corps has the goal of establishing two school libraries in the hopes of creating a reading culture for the next generation, as literacy is the only way these children will be able to find their way out of poverty.

Pamela says that this particular project meshes very well not only with her own personal goal --- of acting as a gatekeeper so that others may realize their dreams --- but also with the Middleton Library's 2009 institutional goals. These goals include an emphasis on global awareness along with a commitment to conservation and sustainability. She feels that recycling/reusing books is a great tie-in with conservation and that reduction in the inequities of resources and information retrieval opportunities is also a part of sustainability.

More than 700 books have currently been donated, with the hope of reaching a total of 1,300. If you are interested in making a donation to help reach this goal, the need is for preschool books --- things like basic English learning, board books and little golden books. Books will be shipped by February 17, so any donations should reach Pamela by February 12. If you would like to contribute, please contact her at pamela@scls.lib.wi.us or call (608) 827-7425.

... when one lives with another who shares the same books." ~ Katherine Mansfield, New Zealand author and literary contemporary of D.H. Lawrence and Virginia Woolf.

Mansfield's belief that reading books is a pleasure that intensifies when shared with others is finding resonance in contemporary Wisconsin through the efforts of several community librarians and UW-Madison Chancellor Carolyn Martin.

A February 5, 2009, Ozaukee Press article relates how Linda Pierschalla, Director of the Oscar Grady Library in Saukville, along with Annie Bahringer, Director of Adult Services at the Port Washington Library, worked together to develop the "One Book, One Community" reading initiative in the hopes of giving area students and adults from all walks of life the encouragement to read and discuss important issues raised by a single book. Learn why Leaving Microsoft to Change the World by John Wood was their book of choice to inaugurate this "One Book, One Community" reading program and about the variety of community-wide activities and discussions planned to celebrate this year's local reading initiative.

Chancellor Carolyn "Biddy" Martin recently invited students, faculty, staff and the community to also take part in a common book project. On February 26, she posted the following message online:

"I am pleased to announce that the university is launching a common book project that will be known as "Go Big Read." Students, faculty, staff, alumni and the community are invited to participate by reading a selected book and taking part in campus discussions and community events this fall."

"The purpose of the project is to introduce new students to the intellectual life of the campus; to build intellectual community among all our students, staff and faculty; to generate exchange between members of the campus and the larger Madison and alumni communities; to emphasize the importance of reading; and to give us a shared point of reference for at least some of our interactions with one another.

To learn more about this community reading initiative or to suggest a title for the 2009 book selection (no later than March 6) visit "Go Big Read".

For details on other "One Book" reading promotion projects or for "How To" information for organizing your own community-wide reading program, visit the Library of Congress' "The Center for the Book" web site.