Microlibrary

Many iterating toward openness readers know about COSL’s Microlibrary project. The Microlibrary has received funding from the AT&T Foundation, the Qwest Foundation, and the OpenContent Foundation, but we hit a new milestone this past week when we received a donation from a business (not a foundation) reaching out to the community. ThePlanCollection.com is a local company here in Utah, and “offers the finest collection of house plans online with home plans from top architects in the United States and Canada.” Many thanks to the guys at ThePlanCollection for their support!

Our Microlibrary project got a nice write-up in the Salt Lake Tribune today. Obviously there are other projects using similar technology, but I love our focus on elementary school-age kids. Our “Bound to Read” program takes the Microlibrary out to rural schools to teach kids about the history of writing and printing, to teach them how books are made and bound, and gives each child a book of their choosing. We’ve given away over 100 books since October, and have a goal to give away 5000 books to 4th and 5th graders in rural schools in Northern Utah next year. ...