New Books

Being that the children didn't have school yesterday, turnout was fairly sparse. This actually worked to my advantage, though, as I was busy improving the Community Center's library collection. During the week, I purchased about 150 like-new books to donate to Grandview; because of my connections with Goodwill, I was able to get a decent price. The timing turned out to be good, as the only funding they had for books through VOA had been cut off a few months prior. The Community Center puts a great emphasis on reading--even requiring students to read for at least thirty minutes before spending time online--and the children were in need of new books as what they did have had been well picked over and reread countless times. I tried to get a nice variety to take into account the different age groups, and found a nice balance between fiction and non-fiction.

Because it was slow during the hours I volunteered, I also spent time weeding out books that were missing pages or damaged beyond repair, and repairing those older books that could be salvaged. I still have about fifty or so books that are in need of mending, but this shouldn't take long as I have years of experience with mending books, accrued when I worked in Tech Services at the Everett Public Library doing just that.

I am also working on going through books I already own in order to find more donations for Grandview. By the time my internship is over, I hope to have built a fairly impressive library for the children, with enough new stock to hopefully keep them interested for some time to come. When I was young, I thankfully always had access to books, which had a profound impact on my life, and I hate to see others not have the same at their disposal.

Until next week...