I love working in a school library, but one of the parts of my job I have a tough time with is saying “thanks, but no thanks” to some of the donations that come in. I think most teachers and librarians LOVE books, and even when you’ve already got two copies of one particular Clifford book, it’s hard to say “no” to a third. I mean, it’s a book! It needs a reader, and for a reader to find it, it needs to live in a library, right?
As a result, in my early years at my job, I collected quite a mountain of donations that I thought I would maybe, someday, possibly catalog…but obviously that extra time never presented itself and many of the donated books just sat there, waiting and lonely.
Then, one day, these books got a new chance at life when I heard about a fabulous organization that can turn used books into a library for people who may never have had one before. The African Library Project builds libraries in different African countries and fills them with books collected through book drives held around the United States. By working with this organization, my school was able to build a school library in Ghana.
Spreading Literacy, One Book Drive at a Time
According to their website, since Chris Bradshaw began the African Library Project in 2005, they have helped to build 2384 libraries in the countries of Kenya, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Malawi, Swaziland, Botswana, Nigeria, Lesotho, Cameroon, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Ghana (which is where the books from my school now live!). In order to help the African Library Project start an African library, a U.S. school (or organization, sports team, Scout troop, family, or awesome person) must collect at least 1000 books and $500 to ship the books. The U.S. groups and schools are paired with a site in Africa, which is neat because the U.S. groups will know exactly where their donations are going.
When I heard about the ALP and signed up to do a book drive at my school, the mountain of extra donations to my school library became our book drive’s very first donation. In a few weeks’ time, thanks to more book donations from students and volunteers, we had collected way more than the required 1000 books. It was then time to sort through the books to identify books that would be a good fit for our Ghanaian partner school, since the ALP has guidelines about what types of books are best to send. We found 1000 good ones and donated the others to other charities that collect books.
Since I work at a Catholic school where the students wear uniforms, a couple of “dress down days” was all it took to raise the $500 needed for shipping the books. The ALP has a pretty cool and cost-effective way of getting the books to Africa. Each book drive is packed up by the U.S. school or organization and mailed USPS to a warehouse in Louisiana. Then, a whole bunch of book drives from all over the nation are shipped by boat to Africa. It usually takes about $250 to mail 1000 books to Louisiana (when we did our book drive, we hit that figure almost on the nose), and then the ALP asks the folks behind each book drive to send another $250 check directly to the ALP, which, together with the money from other book drives, funds the boat trip to Africa.
Building Awareness and Library Skills While Building a Library
It obviously felt good to know that my lonely donations were going to be loved by children who may not have had an opportunity to love too many books before. But I wanted to make sure that my students benefited from this project, too, so I tried to help raise my students’ awareness and give them a chance to use their research skills during our book drive.
I had my seventh and eighth grade students use library resources to do some research about the country of Ghana, and then they wrote and illustrated picture books to share what they had learned with my younger students. I also spoke to all my classes about libraries around the world, explained that access to books is limited in some parts of the world, and tried to help my students realize how blessed they are that they are learning to read and that they have access to information. (I mean, really!?! How amazing is it that most Americans have access to THOUSANDS of books at their local public library, not to mention all the reading material online! What a blessing that we take for granted so often!)
Overall, my experience with the African Library Project was wonderful, and it was a great feeling to know that my school was a little part of this amazing project that is spreading literacy. Since we ran our book drive in 2013, other teachers in my school have held book drives to support other great organizations, so I haven’t been able to get a second ALP book drive together at school, but it is definitely something I would like to do again! There is something so special about the idea of one school helping another and one library getting another one started.
How awesome is it to think that somewhere in Ghana, that extra copy of a Clifford book that started out in a box in my library is helping to bring the joy of reading to a child?!
For more information or to start your own book drive, please visit the African Library Project’s website.
Hooray! This is awesome!