Newswise — Better World Books and the National Center for Family Literacy (NCFL) today announced the winners of the first Better World Books/NCFL Libraries and Families Award.
The winning libraries will each receive $10,000 for their family programming. They are:
• The Mastics-Moriches-Shirley Community Library in Shirley, N.Y. (Public/Academic Libraries Category). The library’s Learning English: A Family Affair program offers high quality instruction focused on learning English. Standardized tests show that 75 percent of participants increase their English proficiency by at least one level in less than a year; and
• The Vineland Public Library in Vineland, N.J. (Urban Library Category). The library’s Families and Books workshop instructs adults on the importance of reading to their children daily. The program, which is conducted at local schools, community organizations and in the library, has strong results. Research shows 63 percent of parents who attended the workshops said they read more often to their children, and 88 percent of parents said reading aloud to their children had improved their children’s readings skills.
“Local libraries serve a critical role in promoting lifelong learning and literacy in their communities,” said David Murphy, president and CEO of Better World Books. “We are proud to partner with NCFL to specifically promote the new and innovative ways libraries are working to bring families together over books and learning.”
The winners were announced at NCFL’s National Conference on Family Literacy in San Antonio.
“Libraries provide important access for families to read together and take other critical steps that lead to success,” said Sharon Darling, NCFL president & founder. “This new award program will spur the innovative programming that is fundamental to that success.”
Funding for the program comes from the Better World Books for Libraries program, a free service that helps libraries manage their unwanted books. Better World Books sells those books online, sharing the revenues with the libraries and its nonprofit literacy partners.
Since the inception of the BWB/NCFL library fund, 916 libraries across the United States have shipped 2.2 million books to be sold online to generate funding for libraries and their literacy partner, NCFL. The Better World Books/NCFL partnership has raised more than $560,000 for NCFL’s programming since 2005.
ABOUT NCFLThe National Center for Family Literacy is the worldwide leader in family literacy. More than 1 million families have made positive educational and economic gains as a result of NCFL’s work, which includes training more than 150,000 teachers and thousands of volunteers. For more information, visit www.famlit.org.
ABOUT BETTER WORLD BOOKSBetter World Books (www.BetterWorldBooks.com) is a for-profit social enterprise that collects and sells books online with each sale generating funds for literacy initiatives in the U.S. and around the world. With more than six million new and used titles in stock, Better World Books is a self-sustaining company that balances the social, economic and environmental values of its stakeholders. Better World Books diverts books from landfills by conducting book drives on 1,800 college campuses, and by collecting discards from over 2,000 libraries. Since its founding in 2003, the Mishawaka, Ind.-based company has raised over $7.6 million for its non-profit literacy, library and college partners; donated over 1.5 million college textbooks; diverted more than 32 million pounds of books from landfills; achieved over 9,000 tons of carbon offsets through carbon-neutral shipping, and created more than 200 full-time jobs with meaningful benefits.
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