Growing up in Louisiana in the early sixties, our family had no city or county libraries available to us. But luckily, the Bookmobile came around on its faithful schedule and afforded us the luxury of regular library visits. I’ll always remember the “booky” smell upon entering the library on wheels and excitedly picking out my journeys to adventure. I cannot imagine growing up without a library of some kind in which to mine for fun books, even if it moved around on wheels.
Yet more than four decades later, there are still many rural places in the United States without a library system in place for their local citizens. What would you do if you had no access to a library? Kids Need to Read received the following solution in this anonymous library submission for the River Road – Santa Clara Volunteer Library:
The RRSC Volunteer Library was started because of a drastic library shortage in Lane County, Oregon. Lane County, which is about the size of the state of Connecticut, has no county-wide library system–and people who live outside the city limits of places like Eugene, including the residents of the Santa Clara and River Road areas, must pay punitive amounts in order to get a city library card. The RRSC Volunteer Library is a grassroots organization, an effort by and for Eugene residents to create a city-quality library for those who live outside official city limits.
In answer, forty-three new books valued at over $650 were recently sent to the library. All of us at Kids Need to Read share the passion of the River Road – Santa Clara volunteers. We were happy to contribute to the volunteer library and admire the citizens’ efforts to bring reading opportunities to the people who live in their community.
