Author: Anthony Chow

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“Dr. Anthony Chow Appointed to the Little Free Library National Board”

Help us congratulate our RNW Project Director and SJSU iSchool Director Dr. Anthony Chow, in his recent appointment to the Little Free Library National Board. In partnership, they secured a $1.4 million grant that aspires to “address barriers to literacy & libraries for Native American children & families in five tribal communities nationally.” The Reading Nation Waterfall project aims to promote this mission with the collaborative and invaluable efforts of our Tribal Partners. You can read more of the SJSU School of Information’s blog here.

Project Director Dr. Anthony Chow stands with a Little Free Library in Northern Cheyenne.

Little Free Library started with one book-sharing box built in 2009 in Wisconsin. Over the years, their global impact has shaped the way we connect literacy to diverse communities. To date, there are over 125,000 Little Free Libraries across 50 U.S. States and 112 countries.

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RNW Visits the EBCI

Dr. Anthony Chow and UNCG LIS student Anna Sink visited our partners with the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in beautiful Cherokee, NC. During their visit they met with our partners Adam Lambert at the Qualla Boundary Tribal Library, Tina Saunooke director of the Qualla Boundary Head Start, and Zena Rattler of the Snowbird Community Library. The Reading Nation team gathered community data through surveys and in-depth interviews with community members.

Several book giveaways were hosted for the children at the Qualla Boundary Head Start and Qualla Boundary Library. From this visit alone over 150 books were distributed to the children in the community.

“Many thanks to Adam Lambert, Chief Snead, Tina Saunooke, Donna Robertson, and all of the wonderful people and members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indian tribe who spent time with us during our site visit. We learned quite a bit about their history, their dreams and aspirations, and the very real barriers they face, especially as it pertains to early children’s literacy. This is why a community assessment is so important before using our grant funding to try and increase literacy and break down barriers.”

Project Director, Dr. Anthony Chow
Photo from Water Rock Knob, Cherokee, NC. Photo by Adam Lambert, Librarian, Qualla Boundary Tribal Library

UNCG LIS student Anna Sink offered these thoughts to share:

“I was very lucky to visit the Qualla Boundary and meet several members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. Everyone was very accommodating, friendly, and eager to talk about their beautiful home. You feel the sense of community and pride as you drive through town, seeing the painted bears, statues, and the Cherokee language adorning signs and buildings. I was fortunate to get to visit with Adam Lambert, head librarian at the Qualla Boundary Public Library and to hear his thoughts about how libraries play such an important role in the community. I enjoyed hearing his take on the needs of the tribe and ideas to make a difference in people’s lives through literacy and libraries. Passing out books to families and hearing their thoughts about the needs of the community was invaluable. What a treat to meet the people and place that we’ve been researching and talking about for so long!”

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Reading Nation’s ALA Convention Presentation

Our panel discussion for the ALA annual convention was very well received! Huge thanks to everyone that participated! View the whole presentation:

A huge thank you to all our partners and consultants that participated!

Anthony Chow, Moderator,

Associate Professor, Department of Library and Information Science, UNG Greensboro,Greensboro, North Carolina

Adam Lambert, Library Manager, Qualla Boundary Tribal Library

Karla Clark, School Librarian, Crow Agency Elementary School

Cynthia Aguilar, Director, Santo Domingo Pueblo Tribal Library

Kim Sellers, Program Director Reading Education, UNC Pembroke

Greig Metzger, Executive Director, Little Free Libraries

Lesley J. Farmer, Professor of Library Media, CSULB, Los Alamitos, California

Ada Sanchez, School Librarian, Santo Domingo Pueblo Elementary School

Melissa Casey, Research Assistant and Web Specialist, UNC Greensboro

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Traditional Oral Story Telling

A big thanks to our partners with the Lumbee tribe for sharing some of their oral stories with us.

Native American stories are traditionally told by the grandparents to the children. The children then take those stories and pass them down through future generations. Please listen and share with your children as Ms. Gwen Locklear tells us the stories of “How Turtle Few South for the Winter,” “How Possum Got His Tail,” “Rabbit Wishes for Snow,” and “Turtle Races with Beaver.”

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Little Free Library at Pembroke Elementary

A peek at one of our Little Free Libraries! This particular box belongs to our partners with the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina and is located at Pembroke Elementary School. Our partners are hard at work getting these books to the children and families in their communities.

If you are interested in donating books to any of our partners please visit our donation page!

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177 Books Disseminated by our partners working with the Lumbee Tribe!

Robeson County library director, Katie Fountain, visited Baptist Christian Daycare and Riverwood Pre-Elementary and gave out 112 books to the children. She also donated 65 gently used books for the Reading Nation Waterfall Little Free Libraries! These books are getting out to the children and families. We can not thank our partners enough! Look at all those happy faces!

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RNW partner, Robeson County Public Library getting books to Lumbee children!

Thank you to our partner, library director, Katie Fountain! Robeson County Public Library will soon be distributing books to the Shining Stars Preschool in Pembroke, NC. More to come when these books are all in the hands of the children!

Our partnerships with local libraries and schools are crucial to getting literacy resources to tribal families and children.

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Happy New Year Reading Nation!

We have some pictures from the Little Free Library give away hosted by the Crow Agency School Librarian Karla Clark. Each child in attendance received a free book to take home and enjoy!

“We have received four gift purchases from donors and would like to share our heartfelt THANKS to Timothy Matonak, Chia Wang, Anthony Chow, and an unknown donor who sent the book “A Child’s Guide to Arctic Birds”. The students were very happy to receive the books and say Thank You very much. More pics to come in the new year as we do our weekly giveaways.” -Karla Clark

If you would like to donate books to one of our tribal partners or to the general fund, please visit our donations page.

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The Waterfall Begins!

The first books for #ReadingNationWaterfall have been disseminated by the Crow Tribe after 3 months of preparation and planning! To donate books to their #LittleFreeLibrary visit their amazon wishlists: http://ow.ly/CSEy50CG8h7 and http://ow.ly/kWuP50CG8h9.

The titles that have been made available to families and children:

  • This Little Reindeer
  • You Are Merry Little Christmas
  • Teeny Tiny Santa
  • Llama Llama Jingle Bells
  • Fancy Nancy and the Too-Loose Tooth
  • Fancy Nancy: Too Many Tutus
  • How to Catch a Unicorn
  • Peanut Butter & Cupcake
  • The Itsy Bitsy Spider
  • Pete the Cat Saves Christmas
  • Supertruck
  • Gingerbread Mouse
  • How to Trick a Christmas Mouse
  • The Elves’ Night before Christmas
  • The Last Holiday Concert
  • Holly’s Jolly Christmas
  • Who Would Win: Wolverine vs. Tasmanian Devil
  • Upside-Down Magic
  • Super Rabbit Boy’s Time Jump
  • Firelight (Amulet)
  • Kristy’s Great Idea
  • Christmas Mice
  • The Christmas Penguin
  • There Was a Cold Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow
  • The 12 Days of Christmas
  • We’re Going on a Santa Hunt
  • Dog Man Unleashed
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