Start with your kids and then each other and then with yourself! PPL is grateful to be among the founding partners of the newly formed ConnectEd effort in Portland. We plan to have a major impact in the effort to increase Pre-K reading in Portland. We won’t be in it alone as we will be working with terrific partners like the United Way, Portland Schools and other organizations. But it will take passionate individuals as well who believe deeply that reading is the greatest gift that parents, schools, libraries and society as a whole can bestow on any one individual.
There will be many ways to reach children, families and individuals in the City. Our commitment is to utilize everything in our power – our staff, volunteers, deposit collections, branches and our new bookmobile – to infect this City with a reading bug. The bookmobile funding plan, design and service strategy has been three years in the making. It arrived today after a 4 day cross country drive from Las Vegas looking like an old friend who is ready to lend a hand.
In the spring of 2010, the Library publicly put forth its Portable Library concept. The effort included a number of elements but the basic idea was to transcend the physical locations of the library by going to where the people are working, living and recreating. The Portable Library Team includes, among other things, deposit collections at places like the METRO waiting room on Elm Street, coffee houses and a bookmobile.
The bookmobile, funded in part by support from Key Bank, will arrive in Portland sometime next week and will be on the road in April. It will bring books, programs, internet access, training and the ability to sign up for a library card to locations throughout Portland. Many folks have fond memories as children of PPL’s full scale bookmobile from 1972 to 1994.
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services has generously donated a collection of resources for circulation to PPL. Furthermore, there is now a shelf on the Lower Level of the Main Library full of items donated from USCIS that folks can take (for free!) to help prepare for the process.
Sally Bauvelt, Field Office Director, and Cindy Lembarra, Supervisory Immigration Services Officer, want to be sure that people know that at the USCIS office in South Portland they are available and willing to help. In fact, they even plan on setting up workshops in the near future here at PPL to talk to New Mainers about any immigration questions they have and to help answer any questions around the citizenship process.
If you speak with anyone who may find these materials helpful, please send them our way!
A sample of the available items (with links to the library catalog):