Dear NJ colleagues,
This is a preliminary inquiry about a potential project to share books with schools and libraries in Tanzania. One of my faculty members returned recently from a trip to Tanzania, where she was much disturbed by the absence of books available to students. She is interested in organizing a project to collect books and learning resources to share with schools and libraries. She is hoping that NJ libraries would be interested in supporting this project by donating books that are not needed in their local collections.
Children in Tanzania learn English in school, and study most subjects in English in the upper grades. Books to be donated to the project could come from donations to the library that are not slated for addition to the local collections and/or a book sale. They could also come from materials weeded from the library collections, if currency is not a key issue for the usefulness of the item.
Of particular interest for this project would be:
Material for very young children (pre-K)
Fiction and non-fiction for K-12
Adult fiction and non-fiction for light reading
Scholarly and professional works on teaching, learning, and education.
Once again, this is a preliminary investigation of the possibilities for developing this project. If there is sufficient interest to make the project feasible, we will proceed with creating a working process for getting the books from your library to Tanzania.
Would your library be willing to contribute material from your discards or donated items you can’t use in your own library? If so, please complete this short questionnaire, or send an email to Leslie Murtha at Email
Thank you for considering supporting this initiative.
Leslie Murtha
Reference & Instruction Librarian
Atlantic Cape Community College