Staff members of the Driscoll Public Library are excited to announce they are one of the recipients of this year’s Texas Book Festival Grant. The winners were announced last Friday at the Texas Library Association convention in Dallas.
Since the Texas Book Festival’s founding in 1995, it has been a part of the mission to promote literacy and Texas libraries. Each year, funds raised at the annual Texas Book Festival support grants that are distributed the following year. Since 1996, the organization has funded 1,121 grants totaling nearly $3 million to 600+ libraries in every corner of the state.
“The monies received from the Texas Book Festival Collections Enhancement Grant will be used to enhance and update all areas of our Spanish language collection, English language adult nonfiction, young adult nonfiction and juvenile nonfiction,” Head Librarian Debra DuBose said. “The focus in the juvenile section will be on science (space), history/geography, technology and math-building skills. In the adult section we will be focusing on medical, political sciences, and career building, and in the young adult section the sciences, job seeking/career building, mental health awareness, and financial books.”
There will also be a small amount set aside for the enhancement of our nonfiction audiobook collection.
“All the above sections of our collection have an average copyright date in the late 1990’s and are very dated in appearance,” DuBose said. “Due to this, these books are often overlooked and have outdated information making them nearly obsolete. This is critical when patrons are seeking medical information and career/job seeking information. It is very difficult to recommend a book to a patron seeking fresh, current information on any of these subjects when the material is so outdated.
“We are really excited to have funding to expand and update our Spanish language section,” DuBose continued. “This area of the library has needed attention for a number of years. It is going to be great to be able to provide a new and updated materials to a larger part of our community.
“It will be a few weeks before the new materials can be purchased and processed, but we would love to invite everyone to stop in and see all the changes and additions taking place at the library.”
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