Great Contest and Greater Celebration

My friend Kate over at The Neverending Shelf is hosting her own set of National Library Week events.

Stay tuned for information on how to win either 5 of Kate's books or $25 to The Book Depository...

Kate has this great post about her library and how economic times are effecting the library. She's hosting a cool contest and donating books to her library for each comment she gets.

My school library is doing pretty well. I still have a job next year and I'm pretty sure our budget won't be cut. I work in a low-income area that services more than 80% Hispanic children some of whom can barely speak English when they come to us. Tragically, we only have a half-day Kingergarten program so our 1st grade teachers are really the ones who teach our kids to read.

I've been trying to implement graphic novels into the library this year. There were maybe 10-20 graphic novels in the library when I started this year and I'm proud to say I've bought about 50 or so more. I'm hoping to build it up even more next year and already have $4,000 worth of graphic novels on an order for next year. Not that I'll be able to get them all, but I hope to spread that out over the next few years.

I actually live in a great area for public libraries. We have a great consortium of libraries by where I live and teach and can usually get any book that I need within a few weeks. My library is 2 and 1/2 miles from my apartment and it's lacking a bit in the Young Adult section, but I like it as a whole.

I'm including Kate's details below, but I'm also going to issue a slight challenge.

Find some time this week and either 1. Take a trip to your local library - maybe bring the librarians a bag of chocolates while you're at it ;) or 2. Do a quick post about National Library Week or anything about libraries/librarians this week. Help us celebrate the awesomeness that is libraries!

For every comment below with a link or what you took out from the library or gave to the library - I will donate $1 to the library. Please, only one comment per person. :)

Here are the details of Kate's Challenge:

As part of National Library Week, I wanted to do something to give back. So I am issuing a challenge to everyone! There are two parts to this challenge. You can take on one or both... the choice is yours.

Part 1:

For every comment that this post receives, I will be donating a 1/4 of a book to my local library. This means that for every 4 comments, my library will be getting a book off my shelves. Please limit the comments to something relevant to this post. You can give us tips on how you can support your local library... Tell us what makes your library special... Etc.


Part 2:

Create a post about the challenge. You can telling us about your local library, tips on how you can make your library, etc. and then pass this challenge along to your readers. You can keep the stakes the same, make them less, or even up them.. the choice is yours. Once you have done this, please link your post in Mr. Linky so that others can see what you can done. Additionally, I will be selecting one lucky winner to select 5 books from my shelves or $25 to spend on Book Depository. If you are international, I will give you $25 to spend on Book Depository. You are more than welcome to read the books before you donate... I just ask that you actually donate the books.


Even if you are not interested in the challenge, please help spread the word. I will be accepting comments and links throughout National Library Week. On Sunday, April 18th, I will announce the winner and show you what I will be donating. Thanks for your support!