Gadsden County Public Library

Help us get books

Valued Patrons,
We are trying to get a hometown helper grant from Hamburger Helper, and we need your support. If you can, please go to the website

http://www.hamburgerhelper.com/ViewProject.aspx?id=37188

and enter in a short comment of support as to why you think we should get this grant.

The 'comment field' is limited to 400 CHARACTERS, and you have to scroll down on the 'agreement box' and check 'I agree to the terms' to have your comment posted.

In advance, thank you for your support.

Our entry:

The Gadsden County Public Library in Quincy, Florida, has been in operation for 28 years. We operate under the auspices of the Board of County Commissioners. Although we are 20 miles from the capital of Florida, we are located in a rural agricultural and largely impoverished county, with 56% African-American, 42.7% white and 8.2% Latino population. English is a second language for many of our residents, and there is a high illiteracy rate as well. Our Main Branch was recently re-named for a local educator, William A. “Bill” McGill, a strong advocate of public libraries.

Due to the tight budget concerns in Florida, our materials budget for this year has dropped to only $20,000, which barely covers the expenses of purchasing recent best sellers, children’s books, and a limited number of audio books.

However, our needs extend to updating our non-fiction books as well, especially in the areas of pregnancy, parenting, and families; general basic health care information; basic English skills; GED and similar educational test preparation; African-American history and biography; and college and career information. Our desire is to continue to provide the best and most up-to-date information to our residents as we can without charge.

But we just cannot afford to update our collection of these books without assistance from you. We estimate that our collection needs at least another $15,000 dollars to update our collection in these areas; however any amount you can provide would help. Thank you.

posted by GCPLStaff @ 6:25 PM