The Bulloch County Literacy Council is expanding its Bulloch READ initiative to include placing seven “sharing libraries,” fashioned from retired newspaper vending boxes and filled with books free for children to keep, at strategic locations. The first, outside the Jones-Love Cultural Center at Luetta Moore Park, is scheduled for a dedication ceremony at 10 a.m. Monday, Nov. 18.

A group of educators, literacy organization members, business and civic organization leaders and community volunteers, the Literacy Council previously helped launch the Bulloch County Schools Book Bus and established about 30 reading nooks with free books at area businesses. Then in June, the Literacy Council partnered with the school district and the Statesboro Herald to convert seven newspaper vending boxes, retired from service and donated by the Herald, into sharing libraries for children as an extension of the book bus program.

Whitfield Signs of Statesboro applied artwork to the newspaper boxes to mimic the popular book bus. The Literacy Council is funding the project in part with a Community Transformation Grant from the Georgia Department of Education but also with support from local sponsors.

Several local businesses are assisting by providing locations for sharing libraries. But the inaugural site, at Luetta Moore Park, 585 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in Statesboro, shows that the Bulloch County Parks & Recreation Department is also involved as a supporting agency.

"We feel Luetta Moore Park is a great location to jump-start our outside sharing library initiative," said Bulloch County Literacy Council coordinator Crystal Simpkins. "Placing the shared libraries around the community reduces obstacles that children and families may have that limit their access to books."

Simpkins, who is also director of early learning for Bulloch County Schools, is one of the people slated to offer remarks during Monday’s 10-10:30 a.m. occasion. The others are Superintendent of Schools Charles Wilson and county Parks & Recreation Director Dadrian “Dee” Cosby.

Some additional information may be revealed Monday about the Parks & Recreation Department’s further involvement in literacy efforts, said school district Public Relations Director Hayley Greene, who had sent out a media advisory for Monday’s event.

Three additional sharing libraries will be placed at Boro Sno in Statesboro, Lanier's IGA in Portal, and El Maguey restaurant in Brooklet, the advisory stated. Locations for the final three sharing libraries have yet to be announced.

“The Literacy Council is placing the sharing libraries in familiar and frequented locations to make it easier for families and children to pick up a book to take home and read,” the advisory states.

Unlike some similar outdoor “little libraries” where books are expected to be returned or replaced by other books in exchange, the sharing libraries will be stocked with books for children to take home and keep, Greene said when phoned about the program. That’s also how the local book bus program operates.

 “The sharing libraries are a creative way to provide free, accessible reading materials to help fill the gap for families that may not have transportation or resources to include books their children can keep in their homes,” the release states. “When books are readily available, children and adults have more opportunities to develop their reading skills. This can support early literacy in young children, promote reading for enjoyment, and encourage adults to model reading habits for children.”