Libraries to Unbox Book Program for Day-Care Kids

For two years, the books sat in storage, casualties of library budget cuts that took them out of the hands of preschool students and day-care kids across the county.

Now the program, called Books to Grow On, is back in circulation. Starting in September, the county library system will again lend at no charge boxes of educational picture books--illustrating topics like dinosaurs, gardens or even self-esteem--to child-care providers.

Each box contains 10 to 15 books, all on the same theme, along with a puzzle, puppet or some other prop for helping children learn about that topic. Day-care providers and private-school teachers hailed the program’s return this week, saying it will save them both the expense of building their own book collections and the time of culling local libraries for useful titles.

“I’m ecstatic,” said Susan Keene, who provides day care for six children out of her Newbury Park home. “It’s a real timesaver for us.”

At the time of its death in 1995, Books to Grow On had been in operation nine years, said Julie Albright, with the library system’s children’s services department. Armed with a $500,000 state grant, the county library system in 1985 began buying books, boxes and props.

The idea, Albright said, was to make sure children in preschool or day care had access to high-quality picture books, volumes that would teach them something and make them want to keep reading. The program was open to both public and private institutions.

“If they were taking care of children, we wanted them to have these books,” she said.

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The collection eventually grew to 900 boxes, on themes ranging from the alphabet to Native American tribes. Some boxes even had books for children who were grieving over the loss of a loved one or trying to deal with the pain of divorce.

Anyone who had a county library card and was caring for at least one child outside of their immediate family could borrow the boxes for up to three weeks. Child-care providers simply looked through a catalog, ordered a box by phone and picked it up the following day at the nearest county library branch.

But in 1994, Books to Grow On fell victim to county budget cutters. First, the program supervisor’s position was axed. Then, library officials tried running the program for a fee, charging participants $25 a year.

Although nearly 500 people had been regularly checking out the boxes, Albright said, few wanted to begin paying for what had been a free service.

So the program died outright. But the boxes of books remained, sitting in a storage room at the E .P. Foster Library in Ventura, out of circulation.

The program’s resurrection, Albright said, is due largely to the persistence of library staff members, who repeatedly told county library officials that the books were being wasted in storage.

“It was basically years of nagging that paid off,” Albright said.

Since the county cannot afford to hire another supervisor for the program, those interested staffers are having to relaunch Books to Grow On by themselves, carving out time during their workday to get it back off the ground. Albright also hopes to recruit volunteers.

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Patty Coleman, preschool director at Simi Valley Christian School, was ready for the program’s return. Her teachers used to borrow the program’s boxes at least once a month, and complained as soon as the program ended.

The books, Coleman said, were a valuable supplement to her school’s collection. Although the 100-student school has a good library of children’s literature, it lacks books on topics such as nature or space. “When it comes to theme ideas, we’re very limited,” she said. “And no, we don’t have the money to buy those books all the time.”

Keene said she was so attached to Books to Grow On that she planned to leave it as a bequest in her will. Since the service folded, she has been visiting the local library every Saturday to pick out books--a time-consuming process, she said.

“Now we can do it all in one stop,” she said.

“I am just thrilled that it’s coming back.”