ACCESS BOOKS was established in 1999 and is based on research that shows that the more a person reads, the better they read. The best predictor of how well a child will learn to read is the number of books to which he or she has access. For economically disadvantaged children, the quality of their school library is the best predictor. In affluent communities, children have access to books in their home as well as their school and public libraries. This is not so in poor communities. There are few, if any books in the home. Accordingly, both the schools and public libraries in these neighborhoods are inadequately supplied: they have few books and most are outdated and uninteresting. Children sometimes wait up to nine months to check out the more popular books. In many cases, the most popular books such as the Harry Potter series are not available.
ACCESS BOOKS works with schools that have high population of children receiving Title 1 funds (at least 90%) and have inadequate and neglected school libraries. Our goal is to provide them with quality, updated books. Ninety percent of all funding we receive is used to purchase books. Most children we serve are children of color and children of immigrants from low-income families. We serve children from pre-K through middle school, with our emphasis being on kindergarten through fifth grade.
ACCESS BOOKS has the single important mission of improving school libraries and communities. While we do not have other programs, we often participate in community events related to books and literacy.