A staffer from the Cobb County Public Library and a staffer from the Cobb County School District were honored for their work on the Books2Keep Bookmobile initiative in Cobb County.
Cobb County Public Library Community Engagement Manager Mary Wood and Library Media Specialist Sandra Davis of the Cobb County School District won the Preschool Outreach and School Services Inspirations Award from the Association of Bookmobile and Outreach Services (ABOS).
The article on the Cobb County Public Library website announcing the award quoted from the ABOS statement about the library and school district’s project:
“In order to acquire materials to distribute, individual schools in Cobb County School District hosted successful book donation drives in the Spring of 2021,” according to the ABOS statement. “Once the books were collected, Media Specialists and the Library Bookmobile team began sorting through the materials grouping them by reading level. Sandra surveyed Media Specialists to allow them to nominate their school’s surrounding neighborhoods to be selected as locations for the Books2Keep stops over summer break.
“With the feedback from Media Specialists and their understanding of under-resourced communities in Cobb, the bookmobile team began contacting parks, apartment leasing offices, mobile home communities, and churches to schedule Books2Keep Bookmobile visits. School staff were invited to meet Bookmobile staff onsite to help readers find their ‘just right’ books for the summer. While on site, schools and library staff answered questions from caregivers about nearby schools and registered families for summer reading. In 2021, Cobb-Marietta Books2Keep was able to distribute 5,686 books to families and children throughout the community.”
Read more about the Books2Keep Bookmobile and the award by following this link to the article on the Cobb County Public Library website.
About the Cobb County Public Library
According to the Cobb County Public Library website:
Cobb County Public Library is a 15-branch system headquartered in Marietta, Georgia, where its staff members serve a diverse population of over 750,000 people. Cobb is one of Georgia’s fastest-growing counties, and Cobb County Public Library is dedicated to being a resource center in the community by providing equal access to information, materials, and services.
History of Cobb’s library system
The first public library in Cobb County was opened in the home of Sarah Freeman Clarke in Marietta. The first standalone library building, opened on Church Street in 1893 and was named for Clarke.
Libraries were opened in Acworth and Austell in subsequent years, and in 1959, the city of Marietta and several other Cobb County libraries combined to form a countywide system that began the Cobb County Public Library as we know it today.
You can read more about the history of the Cobb County Public Library by following this link.
