New Community Library Opens In The Philippines

Despite the challenges posed by typhoons, the Taal volcano eruption, and Covid, a new community library has opened its doors in a village near Lipa, Philippines.

We are delighted to have contributed a wide assortment of books to this wonderful project, and look forward to contributing many more.

The library is the brainchild of retired librarian Peter Mazzei, and  his hard work, and that of so many others, has paid off.

Expanding our reach to the Tuba City Public Library

Last week’s trip to the Navajo Nation and Hopi Nation has expanded the number of public libraries in the area that we serve.  We are pleased to add the Tuba City Public Library in Tuba City, Arizona. The library serves over 800 patrons a day.

The library offers a full range of library services to the residents of Tuba City and outlying areas. Housed in the historic Krenz-Kerley Trading Post, which dates from 1915, the library contains books for all ages, videos and DVDs, magazines, newspapers, computers, online databases, and wireless access. Designated a Family Place library, the library provides story times and a children’s corner with toys and computer games.

We look forward to donating a wide range of books for all ages and interests.

Let us work together as if we had One Heart

Mr. Mazor,

The books arrived and we are very appreciative. We have an intern who will be cataloging them for circulation.

I truly thank you for reading my email and sending the books. We hope to grow into a larger facility and try to create new relationships with other agencies to help us along.

The teen fiction will help increase our collections for our youth. They love those types of books, especially the girls. I want to let you know that the book, titled, “The Dust Bowl”, reminds our people of the home they once lived in before we became a tribe. Our people would use scrap lumber, abandoned billboard and corrugated metal sheets, along with adobe, to create homes for them when they settled here in the late 1800’s. My father, who passed last year, remembered them when they traveled through Arizona to get to California. They would work the cotton fields alongside our Yaqui people and then leave once they made some money.

Our elder volunteer and our intern remembers those homes and it made us reflect on the many progressive changes our people have gone through to become a nation. We are very grateful for that.

Thank you so much and please keep in touch. If there is something that we can do for you, please let us know. We are at your service.

Chiokoe Uttesia.

Amalia Reyes, Manager
Dr. Fernando Escalante Community
Library & Resource Center
Tucson, Arizona

"Wepul Hiapsi tavenasia te nau tekipanoane, Let us work together as if we had One Heart."
--Dr. Fernando Escalante

Reader To Reader Launches Navajo Nation Library Book Drive

We are pleased to announce the launch of the Navajo Nation Library Book Drive.

The Navajo Nation Library in Window Rock, Arizona, serves the 26,000 square mile Navajo Nation in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah. The library has a collection of 75,000 books and 15 computers. Reader To Reader has set a book drive goal to collect 100,000 books and 100 computers.

“I am very excited about our planned joint project,” says Irving Nelson, Program Supervisor for the Navajo Nation Library. “I would like to note that Reader To Reader’s goals to secure 100,000 books and 100 computers are very ambitious and I sincerely believe that it will be accomplished.”

Regarding Reader To Reader’s previous donations he adds, “I would like to note that the qualities of the books you secured for our branch library were excellent and I was so pleased to add them to our branch library collections. The books were definitely a wonderful addition to our branch library.”

“The Navajo Nation Library plays an invaluable role for the children and adults of the Navajo Nation,” says Reader To Reader Executive Director, David Mazor. “There are no book stores in the entire 26,000 square mile area, so the library fills a essential need that would otherwise not be met. We are so pleased to partner with them on an ambitious project to boost their library resources.”

We encourage people to donate books for the library and ask that they use the following guidelines.

1. Books should be in very good or excellent condition. (Books on Native-American subjects will be accepted in any condition).
2. Books on the subject of medicine or health should be no older than 4 years old.
3. CDs and DVDs accepted. No records, VHS or cassette tapes.
4. No magazines.
5. No textbooks.
6. No encyclopedias.
7. Donations of more than 10 boxes of books at a time should first contact us at info@readertoreader.org so we can make storage space arrangements.
8. People interested in donating computers should first contact us at info@readertoreader.org before making the donation. All computer donations must be preapproved.

Books should be shipped to:

Navajo Nation Book Drive
Reader To Reader, Inc.
Cadigan Center – 38 Woodside Ave.
Amherst, MA 01002

For further information contact info@readertoreader.org

Please help us make the Navajo Nation Library Book Drive a success!

Inspiring Others to Give

Dear Reader To Reader,

Because of your organization our library is getting the quality books we need. Because of this, we are growing and are now having a fundraiser.

I have a couple who stop by the library from time to time but rarely check out a book, they just stop in to see how things are going. After seeing the wonderful donations being made and our lack of adequate shelving, they offered a total of $500 to match any other donation that I could get. That really got the ball rolling and we are now up to $1,100 in total for shelving.

I just wanted you to know that your book donations have inspired more people to read and now some who don't even check out our books are donating for shelving as they stop in and see community members of all ages using the library.

Very truly yours,

Lisa Gunter
Quinlan Community Library
Quinlan, TX