Official Press Release!

Rowen Elementary School Celebrates

17^TH ANNUAL GREATER PHILADELPHIA MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY OF SERVICE

Philadelphia, PA– Rowen Elementary School, EducationWorks, and Library Build will join together to make significant improvements to the school at the upcoming 17^th annual Greater Philadelphia Martin Luther King Day of Service. This is the first time ROWEN ELEMENTARY has ever been open to celebrate the day.

             Volunteers will be working to revamp Rowen’s School Library, to paint the doors in the building, to clean inside and outside the building, and to add portraits to the school’s “Wall of Achievement”. Under the first-year leadership of Principal James G. Murray, Jr., this year represents a milestone for a school, which has never before participated in the Day of Service. With the involvement of two non-profit agencies, EducationWorks and Library Build, Rowen seeks to establish a new tradition of service in commemorating the day. The Greater Philadelphia King Day of Service includes projects throughout Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware that includes participants of all ages.

The national King Day of Service was created in 1994 through federal legislation co-authored by former Pennsylvania U.S. Senator Harris Wofford and Atlanta Congressman John Lewis, both veterans of the civil rights movement with Dr. King.

Greater Philadelphia Martin Luther King Day of Service, founder and director Todd Bernstein, who is also president of Global Citizen, announced that a national record 85,000 volunteers are expected to participate in some 1,300 community service projects throughout the region on Monday, January 16^th, King Federal Holiday. This represents an increase of some 10,000 volunteers and one hundred projects from last year’s turnout. 

Serving your Local School Library

As we plan for an amazing 2012 Martin Luther King Jr Day of Service, what are some ways that you can help out your local school library?

- Ask local businesses to put out boxes for a book drive
- Donate a few of your own books to the library
- Purchase a set of books that you loved as a student and dedicate them to the school library
- Start a parent group dedicated to raising money for the school library (or just a community group focused on the local school library if you aren't a parent!!)
- Ask local home improvement stores for donations of paint and other accessories so that you can spruce up the school library


These are just a few of many, many ideas of how you can help out any school near you!

Audio Books Budget

More budget cuts to Philadelphia's library system has resulted in a huge cut to Philadelphia's collection of audio books meant for the blind or others with vision impairments. There is a branch of the Free Library especially for the audio collection (on 8th St in Society Hill) that will now lose half its employees while most of the collection will be moving to... Pittsburgh? Apparently the state wants to consolidate its audio collection, which means that is Philadelphians want or need audio books they have to wait for up to a week to get it.

Now, waiting for a week to get a book from another location is not a huge deal. But I think this says more about whats going on with the state's education and library budgets than anything else. Over time these library budgets are just going to keep declining, as will services to those who need them. More librarians are going to be cut - seen as expendable to the process.

Yesterday the School District had to announce even more layoffs - and in light of the budget crises in this state, some cuts are good. But there continues to be the bleeding of services that are important to basic education - libraries. I'm of the opinion that we can't wait around for the state, local, or even national government to fix these problems. Because, guess what, they won't. We need a new way to solve these problems - before its too late.

The continued economic decline of the PSD

This isn't a cheery post to get us started in the New Year, but there aren't really cheery things going on in the Philadelphia School District - or other PA school districts for that matter.

Despite layoffs last June (of which I was a part of), the Phila School District is still trying to shed services in order to balance the budget (or at least get close to balancing that budget?), and before Christmas, layoff notices went out to nurses, bus drivers, etc. In total, the Philadelphia Inquirer said about 1,400 people would most likely be laid off.

Now, I'm not going to use this space as a forum to talk about what the District did wrong - I have no idea how they spend their money, or who (if anyone) is to blame. What I do want to comment on, is how students are going to be able to keep learning when these cuts are made. It's of no surprise to anyone who reads this blog that school libraries in Philadelphia have been slashed so many times that more than 60% of school's don't have a functional library.

And the main reason that even some schools in Philadelphia still have a library? The Philadelphia Teacher's Union demands (its in their contract) that schools which serve more than 1,000 students have a library with a librarian.

With cuts being made to janitors and bus drivers - vital jobs in a school district - you can be certain that librarianship positions are not coming back any time soon, and neither will spending on school libraries.

Even more heartbreaking is recent news that a school district in Chester is literally out of money. Not just that they are short of money - no, they are actually out of money and won't be able to pay their teachers soon. How on earth is this even possible? Apparently they have appealed numerous times to Pennsylvania, but Gov. Corbett and the Secy of Education are unmoved saying that the Chester-Upland District took control of its district from the state in 2010 and that they misused all funds.

It does seem like PA is being a little heartless here, but then again, how on earth did this school district misuse their funds this badly?
Its like a bad nightmare.

And obviously, yet again, no music programs, no art programs, no nurses, no janitors, and no teachers?, and no libraries. And yet, these students are meant to do what? Go to school and try to get into college just like the kids at the local boarding school?

The situation in public education today is grim. And that's putting it lightly.

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!

Success!

Wow - its already Friday! Where did the week go?

We had three successful gift-wrapping days, and made more than $400 dollars in donations!

A special thanks to everyone who came out and volunteered for Library Build:

Alpha Phi Omega @ UPenn
W Girls
Ty Gambrell
Megan Trainer
Theo Thompson
Kathy Barnes
Lisa Doi
Karinn Figdore
Karen Bloemker

If I forgot someone, please let me know!!

Also, you have one more day to shop online at Barnes and Noble in support of Library Build! Just use code 10570174


Thanks for everyone's support, and get ready for MLK Day of Service!!

More thoughts from the third grade

"I love to read books because I can learn more. When I learn more I can get an education. When I get an education, I can go to college!!"

- A, 3rd grader at Rowen School