{"id":45405,"date":"2018-03-21T08:00:41","date_gmt":"2018-03-21T14:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=45405"},"modified":"2018-03-21T13:06:42","modified_gmt":"2018-03-21T19:06:42","slug":"local-scout-installs-three-new-little-free-libraries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/local-scout-installs-three-new-little-free-libraries\/","title":{"rendered":"Local Scout Installs Three New Little Free Libraries"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Lafayette County, Miss. \u2013 Three new Little Free Libraries<\/strong> have been installed at rural childcare centers thanks to Andrew Henderson<\/strong> of Boy Scout Troop #144<\/strong>. The libraries, which operate on a \u201ctake a book, leave a book\u201d basis, are located at Kids College<\/strong> in Abbeville<\/strong>, My Little Ones<\/strong> off Bay Springs Road, and Hope\u2019s Childcare<\/strong> on CR 102. The libraries are the newest of nine installed by the Lafayette County & Oxford Public Library<\/strong> in partnership with the LOU Reads Campaign<\/strong> for Grade-Level Reading and the University of Mississippi Center for Excellence in Literacy Instruction<\/strong> (CELI).<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are thrilled to be working with these three childcare centers to make free books available where young children and their parents come and go every day,\u201d says Meridith Wulff<\/strong>, youth specialist with the Lafayette County and Oxford Public Library, a branch of the First Regional Library<\/strong> system. \u201cIt complements the puppet shows and other services we provide to childcare centers to promote early literacy skills. Andrew and his family have always been big supporters of literacy in our community and his efforts with this project will make a big difference for a lot of local children.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Henderson, whose troop helped install the libraries, also held a book drive to stock them and planted easy-care bulbs and perennials around some of the libraries. Books also are provided by the Lafayette County & Public Library, CELI and LOU Reads<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI chose installing\u00a0<\/span>and stocking<\/span>\u00a0Little Free Libraries for the Lafayette County & Oxford Public Library as my Eagle Scout project because I enjoyed volunteering for the Literacy Council as a Scout and as a member of Junior Leadership Lafayette and this was another way that I could promote literacy,\u201d Henderson says. \u201cI hope this will get more books into the hands of preschoolers who are just learning to read. I taught both of my younger sisters to read when they were that age and it can be hard to find books that are engaging.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The new libraries are stocked primarily with books for kids but also contain books for older siblings as well as parents and caregivers. In addition to books, the libraries contain public library program calendars and information for parents and caregivers about how to use books and other resources to develop their children\u2019s early learning skills.<\/span><\/p>\n

Other Little Free Libraries managed by the library are<\/span>\u00a0located at Lafayette County Fire Stations<\/strong> in Harmontown<\/strong>, Paris,<\/strong> and on Highway 30 East, as well as at Mary Cathey Head Start Center<\/strong>, Gordon Community<\/strong>, and Cultural Center<\/strong> in Abbeville, and at Community Green<\/strong>, an LOU Home affordable housing neighborhood. The libraries were built last fall by Oxford resident and University of Mississippi student Harriman Abernathy<\/strong> with financial support from CELI and materials donated by Elliott Lumber Company<\/strong>. Each library is overseen by an individual steward in that community who checks it weekly to ensure it is stocked and in good repair.<\/span><\/p>\n

“The Little Free Library project is a vital part of our community outreach to increase children\u2019s access to quality books,\u201d says Suzanne Ryals,<\/strong> who serves as lead of LOU Reads Campaign for Grade-Level Reading and director of Early Childhood<\/strong> and Reading Development<\/strong> for Oxford School District<\/strong>, Lafayette County School District<\/strong>, City of Oxford and Lafayette County. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to increase the opportunities children have to self-select books they find interesting to increase literacy learning. The Little Free Libraries allow us to expand literacy opportunities in our childcare centers and more remote areas of our county. The support from Harriman and Andrew has been instrumental in making this vision a reality.\u201d\u00a0\"The<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lafayette County, Miss. \u2013 Three new Little Free Libraries have been installed at rural childcare centers thanks to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":261,"featured_media":45410,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[307],"tags":[822,12017,12021,12019,256,12027,12018,12023,12020,4,12022,12026,12024],"class_list":["post-45405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-people","tag-books","tag-boy-scout-troop","tag-hopes-childcare","tag-kids-college","tag-lafayette-county","tag-leave-a-book","tag-little-free-libraries","tag-lou-reads-campaign","tag-my-little-ones","tag-oxford","tag-oxford-public-library","tag-take-a-book","tag-university-of-mississippi-center-for-excellence-in-literacy-instruction"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/mylittleonesFEAT.jpg?fit=620%2C349&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/261"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45405\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}