First Book Donates 50,000 New Books to Oklahoma Kids
RSSJoan Oleck -- School Library Journal, 09/25/2007
As the winner of this year’s “What Book Got You Hooked? contest by the literacy group First Book, Oklahoma will receive 50,000 new, age-appropriate books for kids who most need them.
Thanks to a campaign led by a state literacy specialist, librarians and others around the Sooner State mobilized, then went online to choose theirs as the winning state. In the end, Oklahoma snagged 34,000 of the 133,000 votes cast. That was 5,000 votes more than the runner-up state, Nebraska.
In June, Leslie Gelders, literacy coordinator for the Oklahoma Department of Libraries, urged department staffers to join her voter recruitment drive, targeting the state's network of public libraries and literacy programs.
Two days later, the state was in first place.
"Everybody began contacting their friends and families," says Bill Young, a department spokesman. "We even heard that soldiers in Iraq were logging on and voting for Oklahoma to get the books.”
The Internet certainly deserves credit for Oklahoma's success. Gelders first heard about the contest from a transplanted Oklahoman living in Texas who in turn had read about it on a Nebraska library blog, Young explains.
The books, which were donated by DK Publishing, will be distributed to programs serving children from low-income families. And many more are likely to arrive: At the September 19 presentation in Oklahoma City, First Book senior vice president Lynda Lancaster said that the organization had 300,000 more books to donate to the state, as soon as local warehouse space can be found.
The annual contest also asked voters to name the book which had turned them into lifelong readers. The hands-down favorite? Carolyn Keene's famous Nancy Drew mysteries series.
