Books, Literacy and Libraries

Promoting Literacy and Bringing Books to Underserved Communities Worldwide

Biblionef – Biblionef works closely with under-resourced schools and local libraries that are either too far from a public library or simply do not have the resources to buy new books. We help teachers and neighbourhood librarians set up or improve their own libraries and organise reading sessions.

Biblionef South Africa – book donation for children and young people in South Africa, aged 3 to 18, living in underserved communities with no access to books.

Book Aid International – English language book donations worldwide, prepares room designated as a library, and trains library staff.

Books for Cause http://www.books4cause.com/ – book drives on campuses across the U.S. and accept books, CDs, and DVD donations in Chicago. Donations to Africa or Chicago and remaining materials are sold, given away or recycled.  The sold books pay for operations and shipping expenses to Africa.

Books for Eastern Congo

The Library Project https://www.library-project.org

Lubuto Library Partners

Nabu – books to support reading in the mother tongue.

Nalibali – reading-for-enjoyment campaign in South Africa.  Le Roux, Righardt. “What we become depends on what we read.”

Partners in Literacy Haiti

Room to Read https://www.roomtoread.org/

Storybooks (from Transformational Leadership Center) – books may be freely downloaded

Ebooks for Children (free):

  • Book Dash – free books in languages of South Africa.
  • Literacy Cloud (Room to Read) – hosts books and videos with local creators from around the world: 500+ professionally produced children’s books in 20+ languages, and 100+ videos of books being read aloud, library management guidelines, and more.
  • Read Aloud books – multilingual stories for children in local languages, hosted by Children’s Peace Libraries in Rwanda and used as part of the Read Aloud programs at all of the Children’s Peace Library locations.
  • Storyweaver – a digital repository of multilingual stories for children from Pratham Books.

Funding:

Scholastic – Corporate Responsibility

Resources:

ALA. Book Donation Programs (LibGuide).

Becker, Joshua. 20 Places to Donate Used Books. October 29, 2019.

Bologna, Caroline. 10 Awesome Book Charities That Help Kids All Over The World. March 11, 2015; Updated December 6, 2017.

Starting a Library:

Peace Corps. Libraries for All! How to Start and Run a Basic Library. 2004.