Holiday Greetings and Thank You!

2011 has been a great year for Library Build, Inc, and we want to thank everyone who has volunteered, served on the board, followed up with me on emails when I never respond (oops), donated, and helped out in so many ways! Thank you!

Here's a quick run-down of our successes this year, hopefully I won't leave any out!:

- Received a seed grant from the Weinberg Foundation
- Began a partnership with William Rowen School 
- Met with the principal of the Arts Academy at Benjamin Rush in hopes of a partnership for 2012
- Had our first site visit from a grant-giving foundation
- Received publicity from The Philadelphia Inquirer 
- Received a donation from the Nickels for Nonprofits program of Whole Foods Callowhill
- Collected over 300 books from a book drive at Whole Foods Callowhill, and from our friends at the Oak Lane Branch of the Free Library
- Recruited and worked with new board members who are planning some exciting things in 2012 - keep an eye out!
- Held a book fair at Barnes and Noble in Philadelphia, and received over $400 just from gift wrapping donations!
- Received a grant from the Samuel S. Fels Fund
- Over 170 hours volunteered to Library Build in 2011, and more to come in 2012!

Thanks to everyone for your support!

Library Build is on Twitter!

Library Build, Inc is happy to introduce Sarah, our social media/twitter expert. (I'm not really sure of a great title for this role!) Sarah is taking over our twitter page - following others, and getting Library Build some followers, and making those short and sweet updates in 140 characters or less! @LibraryBuild

Sarah has a Masters in Library and Information Science from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (yeah!).  She also runs her own twitter page about all things library @frontierlibrary. Sarah does a lot of freelance work for nonprofit orgs, especially those of us who need some twitter help; she's worked on website usability projects, and has plenty of experience in research. 
Her favorite book growing up was A Child's Garden of Verses, and she expressed an inability to pick a favorite book these days, but settled on the short stories of Alice Munro! 

So go ahead, and follow us on twitter! 

Certification versus No Certification?

Over the course of developing Library Build from an idea into an actual nonprofit organization, I have faced a great deal of criticism from librarians who say a variety of things including: "You can't possibly put in people who aren't certified as librarians," or "You will just be taking away the jobs of real librarians," or "Librarians without certification will not serve any great purpose in a library."

So, here we go.

Most of the libraries in Philadelphia's public schools are closed. They have no one in them who manages the collection, no one who monitors what books go in and out. There is no one who runs book clubs, no one who teaches kids how to use technology.

The library at Rowen School is kept locked because it is that useless to the administration without a librarian.

Point One: Is it better for the library to remain closed, than it is for an un-certified librarian to be in the library?


All other organizations that I have read or learned about in the course of my research that do the similar work of renovating libraries either do not put in any supports afterwards, or put in part-time, community volunteers.
A large, corporate foundation renovates libraries, but does not recruit or put in volunteers or librarians. Their work is to put in the books and make it pretty. They then leave the community and the school to use it as they wish. This is why so many of Philadelphia's public school libraries are abandoned now. Because without someone in the library full time to manage it and update it, it becomes useless.

Similarly, other organizations will renovate school libraries and will then place part-time volunteers into the library. Obviously, this is better than nothing, but these volunteers are not trained, and are not there full-time, dedicated to the students.

Point Two: Would you rather have a part time volunteer, or would you rather have someone in the library all day who has received training and is there to serve as a librarian for the entire school year? 


As public school districts across the United States continue to face budget cuts and budget crises, they will continue to lay off their workers. Most recently here in Philadelphia, they laid off a great number of teachers. But guess who went long before the teachers? That's right, librarians. Why? Because ten to fifteen years ago when budget problems began arising in urban districts, they started getting rid of the people they felt they could most do without. They need teachers, so librarians and similar staff (music programs for one), got laid off.

That was more than ten years ago. This is why Philly's libraries are empty.

Point Three: Library Build is in no way taking jobs from librarians. There are very few librarians in Philadelphia! Once we renovate Rowen's library, we will place a trained librarian into the library. The School District is not magically going to come up with the budget to hire a full-time, certified librarian just because we put in the library. That is wishful, and dangerous thinking.


That being said, when we do actually begin to recruit Library Fellows we will consider any qualified college graduate. We will hire the most qualified applicants we get (including those with MLS degrees) who are willing to work at the salary offered.

The Search Continues

I spoke to a representative from a local grant-giving Foundation this afternoon. She was very interested in Library Build's mission, and our work with Rowen.

Just one flaw: we need more board members!

I'll admit that I am not the very best at networking or connecting people to my mission. One of the pieces of advice that Joe McBride gave me before he passed away was that I needed to do the work, while someone else needed to be the spokesman. Pretty much true! Ha! (Anybody?)

So I put up a posting on Bridgestar this afternoon for Board Members. Let's see if I get any good responses! You can check it out here:
http://www.bridgestar.org/MyCareerCenter/PositionDetails.aspx?jobId=9770

For those reading this blog, please email me if you are interested, or if you know anyone in the area who might be interested. I am willing to talk to anyone with a clear interest in public education.

Thanks!

So whats going on now?

That's the question I keep getting about Library Build. So here we go:

- I am madly working on grant applications. This is what I focus on almost exclusively right now. No comment on my level of enjoyment of this task.

- I have been emailing with my teacher contact at Rowen School. School is starting next week so they are a little crazy, but once things settle down, I will be going to the school more often to work in the library. Which means, I will be measuring the floors, looking through what has been stored there to either get rid of it or move it to somewhere else in the school, etc.

- I am planning a MLK Day of Service in January at the library. Of course, this requires a lot of agreements, etc, but I'm really hopeful that we can get volunteers to the library to paint, go through books, etc.

- Whole Foods Callowhill is planning a book drive with Library Build to begin in a few weeks, so I am putting together some marketing things, doing a few write-ups, etc.

- I have plans in the works to visit Lowes, Home Depot, and local hardware stores to beg for discounts or free supplies to renovate the library with. I was going to apply for an actual grant from Home Depot, however, they require anyone who applies for a grant to have been 501(c)3 for two years or more. Two years!

- Yesterday I met with AmeriCorps VISTA, and am in works to apply for Library Build to receive a VISTA member next year (to focus on development of Library Fellows). This makes it absolutely imperative that I get somewhere with my grant applications because we so very desperately need office space.

- There are some other minor items that I am working on, but I think this fairly sums up what I am focused on for the next few weeks or so.

Any questions, thoughts, ideas, let me know.

July 2011 Update

A few updates today:
- About this time last year I was able to connect with a school in Philadelphia that was interested in Library Build. Unfortunately, the situation got complicated when the district sent along paperwork that was too overwhelming for LB at that point. Fast forward to now, and I am working steadily through it. Which means that hopefully we can officially announce a partnership soon.
- Grant applications have been taking up a lot of time recently. In March and April of this year I had completed about 8-10 applications (also including just general letters of inquiry). Not surprisingly, LB was rejected from all of them. The state of funding right now is a mess because of the economy. Grant programs and grant-giving organizations even in good times usually only like to fund projects that they have funded before, and in hard times like these, a new nonprofit has no shot. Hopefully we can interest at least one grant-giving organization though, and really get the ball rolling!
- The government likes paperwork, and even the service orgs within the government are no different! Currently working to partner with AmeriCorps for the Library Fellows program - if I can make it through the paperwork rounds!
- I have been on an intense search for volunteers. Anyone and everyone interested is more than welcome - even if you don't live in Philly! I am trying to develop the following:

• Fundraising plans that do not involve applying to grant programs (so far this has involved contacting local bookstores about book fairs, obviously I am open to any other ideas).
• Marketing materials for Library Fellows, partner schools, the media, etc etc.
• Grant writing, or just grant reading. Like to proofread?
• Anything and everything! 

In closing, here's a link to a recent article in the Philadelphia Inquirer about summer library programs, and the danger in the summer "slide" when many students regress academically because of lack of books, summer academic camps, etc.
Also, a point from his article about why the library is important to our students NOW: "More than 500,000 Philadelphia adults have limited reading ability."

http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/david_brown/20110614_Turning_reluctant_readers_into_eager_ones_at_Free_Library.html

Nickels for Nonprofits

Who knew that keeping a blog would be so much work? Obviously, I have a lot of updates on Library Build, Inc which I will be writing about in the next few days.

Right now though, I want to let everyone who is in Philadelphia know that we were selected to be one of Whole Foods Callowhill's Nickels for Nonprofits recipients! You can donate your bag refund to Library Build now until September.


Also, look for word about a possible book drive there as well.


Callie

Thoughts on Education and Equality

Currently, I am about half way done reading David McCullough's biography of John Adams. According to McCullough, Adams was a staunch advocate for public education. McCullough writes, "Finally and emphatically, he [Adams] urged the widest possible support for eduction." McCullough then quotes from Adams influential work,Thoughts on Government, "'Laws for the liberal education of youth, especially for the lower classes of people, are so extremely wise and useful that to a humane and generous mind, no expense for this purpose would be thought extravagant'" (103).

Adams had it right over 200 years ago. Education is a pillar of society and a great equalizer. As Adams argued, people are not born equal (Adams differed from Jefferson and others on this point - he understood that birth is a 'lottery' - rich, poor, 'lucky', 'unlucky'), but that people should be treated equally and given equal opportunity. McCullough writes on page 224 that, "He [Adams] did not believe all men were created equal, except in the eyes of God, but that all men, for all their many obvious differences, were born to equal rights." Adams felt that one of those rights ought to be to a public education - and in particular equal access to an education.

No matter what you think of the role, significance and responsibilities of teachers, parents, school administrators and students themselves - Don't all of our children deserve to have an equal opportunity to learn? Don't all of our children deserve access to the tools that will help them learn?

We strongly believe that all children deserve equal access to a quality education and we desperately want to help give every student the tools that will enable them to learn!