Library participating in ‘World Book Night’

“World Book Night” is one of the largest campaigns in the U.S. and United Kingdom to eliminate illiteracy and encourage people to read. Wednesday night, the Newton Public Library will join more than 2,300 libraries and bookstores in celebrating the occasion.

The way World Book Night works is the WBN organization has a panel of librarians and booksellers come up with a list of 30 to 35 books that are easy to read for light or non-readers. WBN then contacts the book’s authors and asks them to waive their royalty fees. Next, WBN asks the publishers to make special editions of the books.

After the books are selected, different book stores and libraries vie to be a WBN community partner. Volunteers, who are referred to as “givers,” then select a community partner, and during WBN, they give out 20 copies of a book.

This is NPL’s first year participating as a partner.

“One of the requirements of being a book pick-up site for World Book Night is to be an advocate in the community and to work spreading the love of reading from person to person. As the library is already doing this, we thought it a perfect partnership,” NPL Public Services Librarian Nicole Lindstrom said.

NPL has six “givers” signed up. One giver is Berg Elementary Principal Jolene Comer, who explained how she got involved in the process.

“One of our Title I reading teachers, Brenda Newell, heard about World Book Night and shared the website with me and a few of her colleagues,” Comer said. Four of us decided to give it a try and signed up to participate in the event. We each signed up to give a different book, and plan to give them out after school on Wednesday.”

Comer said she, Newell and the other givers from Berg, will have tables set up to give away the books. Berg Elementary is located at 1900 N. Fifth Ave. E.

“Our hope is that we get a lot of books into the hands of our parents to encourage a love of reading in all,” Comer said.

WBN has more than 25,000 people volunteer annually across the country, and Lindstrom has high hopes for the program, which is only in its third year.

“We hope that next year, with the added publicity and close location, that there will be even more book givers who choose the library as a pick-up location which in turn will mean that there will be more books given to deserving individuals in the surrounding area,” Lindstrom said.

“Huge thanks go out to all the book givers of World Book Night as they are the inspiring individuals who personally hand out over half a million books on April 23rd and make World Book Night possible.”

Senior staff writer Ty Rushing may be contacted at (641) 792-3121, ext. 426, or at trushing@newtondailynews.com.