In April, the Waukegan Public Library hosted a massive book giveaway, luring readers all across northern Illinois to a warehouse filled with free books. Now the library is spreading its literacy efforts even farther. A truck from Better World Books (BWB), a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting literacy worldwide, arrived May 4 to haul away more than 300 boxes of books still remaining.
The stockpile grew from books the library had removed from its collection—either because they were duplicates, out of date, or rarely circulated. Through the book giveaway in April and a book sale in February, the library raised $5,886 in contributions for its new Literacy Suite, which opened just this year. The Literacy Suite provides one-on-one tutoring for adults, family literacy, adult basic education, and computer classes in Spanish and English. All services are free, and open to all Lake County residents.
BWB collects and sells donated books online, helping fund literacy initiatives through partners like Books for Africa, the National Center for Family Literacy, and Worldfund. Since it began in 2002, BWB has converted more than 35 million books into $7.5 million in funding.
