Access Books Bay Area has a team of volunteers to help maintain the dozens of Little Free Libraries we have installed in San Jose. This is important work that will directly improve access to books for hundreds of children here in the Bay Area. We ask that volunteers make a 6 month commitment when signing up for one of these roles. Each role can be taken on by a small group, such as a family, school club, scout troop, or other organization. It is important that at least one member of the group can provide transportation, as driving is part of the job.
For each of our zones listed below, we are looking for a person (or team of people) who will tend to the assigned Little Free Libraries and keep them well stocked with books for children to enjoy!
Responsibilities:
2 Available Assignments: (6 month commitment requested):
If you have expressed interest in this opportunity in the past, feel free to try again. (All positions were filled, but one has recently re-opened.)
Background:
When schools were closed during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Access Books Bay Area provided 45+ schools with Little Free Library ("LFLs") book lending boxes and a stock of books so children living in under-resourced communities could still have access to pleasure reading books. Even though schools have now reopened and on school days most students have access to their school libraries, we have found that the children still are enjoying the 24/7 access to pleasure reading books that the Little Free Libraries provide, often taking the books home and loving them so much they keep them to build their own libraries.
80 Harriet Street, San Francisco, CA 94103, US
Our mission is to level the literacy playing field for K-8 students living in poverty by providing high quality, high-interest, culturally relevant books, and a transformed school library space that invites students to spend time and read. We believe that books change lives, and that for children living in poverty, the school library is the best way to connect children with pleasure reading books. Studies have shown that reading for pleasure is one of the single greatest indicators of future academic success, yet the state of California provides no dedicated funding for school libraries, and many of the schools in the Bay Area have not funded their school libraries for decades, leading to out-dated collections and unattractive facilities. Our organization changes lives by making sure that the school library is an attractive place full of wonderful, interesting, recent, and culturally relevant books that will help them become lifelong readers.
We provide books to low-income schools where approximately 90 percent of students live at or below the poverty line. Most students at the schools we serve are children of color and children of immigrants. Our organization provides brand new, hardcover, high quality books to school libraries and gently used books to teachers for classroom libraries, as well as improving the library space by painting colorful, reading-based murals and providing new comfortable reading furniture.
We complete 2-3 library renovation projects each academic year, each taking place on a Saturday from 9am - 2pm. Volunteers from partner community service organizations collect the gently used books to be donated and provide volunteers for the project day.
We serve school around the bay area, although most of our work to date has been concentrated in the south bay and peninsula areas. We have renovated nine elementary and middle school libraries in high poverty areas to date, and have applications pending for four more, one of which will be renovated this spring.
Multiple locations San Jose, CA 95122
July 9, 2024
