Let’s hear it for public libraries!
The Texas Book Festival has awarded $100,500 to 41 public libraries across the Lone Start State as part of its Texas Library Grants program. Festival officials made the announcement today at the annual Texas Library Association conference in Austin.
TBF’s Texas Library Grants support collection enhancements which allow public libraries to meet the needs of their communities by updating, improving and expanding the variety of the books offered to their patrons. Since its inception in 1995, TBF’s grants have distributed over $3 million to more than 800 libraries.
In the small North Texas town of Denison, for example, library leaders plan to use their grant to add more books by multicultural authors.
“Our patrons have little access to books by Native American authors, and with the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma less than 20 miles away, we realize our book collection was completely inadequate in this area,” says Kimberly Murray, Denison Library director. “Our collection should reflect and serve the needs and interests of everyone that comes through the doors.”
Murray also plans to add more books by and featuring Latinx, African American, and Muslim people in the library’s continued efforts to combat prejudice. “This grant will allow us to bring the richness and variety of stories to patrons that would not normally encounter these authors.”
Terrell County, on the U.S.-Mexican border, is one of the least populous counties in the state and this year its one and only public library is a first time grant recipient. In fact, recent budget cuts have left the Terrell County Public Library, in the tiny town of Sanderson (pop. 837), with only one full-time staff member. The next closest library, in Marathon, is 54 miles away.
The Terrell library will use its grant funds to purchase more than 200 new books for children and teens that will help fill out a much outdated and incomplete children’s section.
2019 Texas Book Festival Library Grant Recipients:
- Temple Public Library
- Cedar Park Public Library
- Friends of the Round Rock Public Library
- Polk-Wisdom Library
- Terrell County General Fund
- Dr. Hector P. Garcia Memorial Library
- McAllen Public Library
- Mineola Memorial Library
- Maribelle M. Davis Library
- City of Lancaster Veterans Memorial Library
- Cockrell Hill Library
- Lewisville Public Library
- Hutto Public Library
- Whitehouse Community Library
- Corsicana Public Library
- North Branch Library
- Marlin Public Library
- Marathon Public Library
- J.R. Huffman Public Library
- Palestine Public Library
- Dublin Public Library Board
- Leon Valley Public Library
- Garden Ridge Library
- Pflugerville Public Library
- Carl and Mary Welhausen Library
- Denison Public Library
- Charlotte Public Library
- Henderson County Clint W. Murchison Memorial Library
- Arlington Public Library
- Fannie Brown Booth Memorial Library
- Grand Saline Public Library
- Sarah Bain Chandler Public Library
- El Paso Public Library
- Judy B. McDonald Public Library
- Brookshire Pattison Library
- Friends of the Longview Public Library
- Leadership Academy Library
- Whitesboro Public Library
- Buna Public Library
- Roberta Bourne Memorial Library
- Cleburne Public Library
