Vernon Area Library gives books a second life
Keeping pace with a constant influx of new materials is job one for any public library.
Traditional publishers release about 300,000 books each year in the United States, according to Bowker, a global bibliographic information provider. With a constant supply of new novels, biographies, nonfiction and picture books, and with a fixed amount of space on shelves, Vernon Area Library meets patron demand for current materials through an ongoing process of subtraction and addition.
Books that are out of date, no longer popular or no longer needed are identified by the date they were last checked out and then "weeded" to make room for new releases.
But the life of a book doesn't end when it's pulled from the shelf.
Vernon Area Library continues its mission to get books into the hands of the reading public by making used books available in the library café, donating pulled materials to Better World Books and placing selected titles in a Little Free Library on the Trail Tales path at Ryerson Woods in Riverwoods. The library also sends books pulled from its collection to area senior centers, Lake County's Hulse Juvenile Detention Center in Vernon Hills and various nonprofits that request reading materials for the people they serve.
Tucked inside the library's café are shelves stocked with recently pulled hardcover and paperback books, as well as DVDs. Visitors make their selections and drop the appropriate donation, 50 cents to two dollars per book, in a nearby boxes. The collected donations are used to support library projects.
Better World Books is an online retailer that donates books and redirects earnings from book sales to fund literacy initiatives around the globe. Since it was founded in 2002, the company has donated 20 million books and contributed more than $23 million to literacy programs including Room to Read and Books for Africa. Patrons who would like to responsibly dispose of old books from their own shelves can also contribute to Better World Books. A collection bin in Vernon Library's parking lot is accessible 24 hours a day, seven says a week.
Trail Tales at Lake County Forest Preserve's Ryerson Woods in Riverwoods provides a way for families to read and interact with nature together. Story panels are posted along the trail nearest the Brushwood Center at Ryerson Woods. At the end of the trail is a Little Free Library, a wooden box with a hinged door that allows for a free flow of books to keep or return. A library volunteer periodically stocks the free library with a selection of nature-related, child-friendly books no longer in use by the Vernon Area Public Library.
The Vernon Area Public Library District serves a population of 42,900 within a 29-square-mile area that includes Lincolnshire, Prairie View and parts of Buffalo Grove, Long Grove, Riverwoods, Vernon Hills and unincorporated Vernon and Ela townships. For more information about the library and its services, visit www.vapld.info.
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