In today’s era of distance learning, many schools and districts have been unable to provide access to pleasure reading books to their students, as school and classroom libraries have been temporarily closed for the 2020-2021 school year.
To support these unique challenges during these unprecedented times, the team at Access Books Bay Area is partnering with a youth organization called Bayreach – and the student members at Los Altos High School – to offer public schools in need a wooden library book box. Similar to a Little Free Library, these library book boxes are filled with books from Access Books Bay Area’s stock of gently used books for children to borrow and return on the honor system.
The library book box program provides students access to books that they can take and exchange during distance learning, ensuring that they continue to read for pleasure. Once a public school agrees to participate in the project, the following steps are taken:
Bayreach and/or Access Books Bay Area volunteers construct and install the library book boxes in an accessible location on the school’s campus.
Access Books Bay Area fills them with inviting, exciting books and provides stock to the school for refilling the library book boxes when they become depleted.
The school’s personnel monitors and maintains the library book boxes on an ongoing basis.
We were excited to receive six enthusiastic “yes!” replies to this project so far from the eight schools we contacted, and expect to receive more positive responses.
Want to get involved with our library book boxes program and give back to students in need? Here’s how you can help:
Donate Books: We welcome like-new or new book donations for children in grades K-8. Check out our Amazon Wish List for ideas!
Donate Money: Monetary donations would allow us to purchase new books for the boxes.
Volunteer: Donate pre-made book boxes or volunteer the materials and time required to construct new ones. Please contact us if you are interested!