Presenters: Kelli McDaniel, Beth McIntyre. Presented at the Georgia Libraries Conference in Columbus, GA on 10/06/2017. The Barrow Book Partnership (BBP) began in 2016 as a unique, dual approach and joint community partnership to promote and encourage early literacy in Barrow County’s children.

1. TheBarrowBookPartnership
An innovative, dual-approach to building partnerships and early
literacy across our community.

2.  Collaborative partnership that aims to increase early
literacy development and school readiness of the low-
income population of Barrow County.
Our Partners:
Who is the BBP?

3.  Collaborative partnership that aims to increase early
literacy development and school readiness of the low-
income population of Barrow County.
Our Partners:
Who is the BBP?

4. Background:
How did all of
this start?
 Approximately 61% of low-income families do
not have ANY age appropriate books in their
homes*
 Partnership began as an attempt to close the
inequality gap in literacy development by
making books more accessible to Barrow
County’s low-income families
 Officially started January 25, 2016
* Flowerday,T. & Schraw, G. (2000).Teacher Beliefs About Instructional Choice: A
phenomenological approach. Journal of Educational Psychology, 74, 141-153.

5. What do we do?
 Unique dual-approach
 Provide free books for families to build their own
library at home
 Also provide free library card sign-ups and
information on library programs and services so
families can access everything we have to offer
 Provide early literacy education to parents to
encourage talking, reading, and interacting
with children during their most critical stage of
brain development

6. 1stYearGoals:
 Have at least 1 library card in 50% of the
Barrow CountyWIC and Child Find participant
households by December 2016
 Have at least 1 library card in 75% of participant
households by June 2017
 Provide each child targeted with an age
appropriate book
 Provide targeted families with library
information and access to a library card.

7. How did we
accomplish
this? It’s a
team effort.
 Received a generous initial grant of $10,000 from the
Luther and Susie Harrison Foundation
 Local organizations like the Winder Clothes Closet, various
churches, and businesses donated new or gently used
board books to stock Book Nooks and made book birdies
 Library staff and BBP
volunteers committed time
to speak toWIC classes and
do library card sign-ups
 Partnership regularly meets
every other month to discuss
ongoing projects, grant
reports, etc.
AN Connect
Book Drive
and Donation

8. WICClasses at
the Barrow
County Health
Department
 The Majority of our efforts are focused on the Health
DepartmentWIC Classes
 WIC population includes mostly low-income prenatal
women and families with children 0-5
 There are nearly 2300WIC children in our county
 WIC participants are required to attend a nutrition class
and assessment every 3 months during the year
 Every Monday, library staff and BBP volunteers cover 7
classes and provide early literacy education, read-aloud
modeling, and library card sign-ups

9. WICClasses at
the Barrow
County Health
Department
 WIC class clients ages birth to 5 receive one new age-
appropriate book at each visit for a total of 4 per year
 Parents also walk away with a BBP bag with library
calendars and info, information from our partners, the BBP
quarterly newsletter, and a Book Birdie for new clients
 Families also have access to the Book Nook, where they can
take any donated, gently-used books that catch their eye.

10. WICClasses at
the Barrow
County Health
Department
WIC Class
Book Nook
Ellen Petree
reads to a
WIC Class
Young WIC client
checks out the
Book Nook

11. Pre-K Lottery
and
Kindergarten
Registration
Peach State
Credit Union donation
 Targeted 650 pre-k lottery applicants for BarrowCounty
School System
 Staffed pre-k lottery drawing days, where we gave out
free books to each of the applicants and signed up
families for library cards
 Thanks to a donation, we were also able to give an
expected 1000 new kindergarteners a new book

12. FosterChildren
andChild Find
 Roughly 80 Barrow County DFACS children ages birth-5
receive a new book twice a year in their care packets
that go out at Christmas and right before summer
 Barrow CountyChild Find identifies children with
delays or disabilities and serves roughly 100 children 3
times a year
 At each meeting with Child Find families the children
receive an age appropriate book and the opportunity to
apply for a library card

13. Pediatricians
Offices
Medlink Book Nook
 In 2017, branched out to serving 2 pediatricians offices
in Barrow
 Medlink ofWinder and Barrow Pediatrics
 At each location we are targeting low-income
households, and will provide 1 book and library
information and calendars at designated well-check
visits
 Rationale: Barrow County
public and private pre-k
classes only serve 45% of
4-year olds, so we hope to
serve more children through
this avenue

14. Measuring
Success
The following stats are taken from our first full-year grant
report covering July 2016 toJune 2017.
 WIC Classes
 saw 800 children 4 times a year and distributed more than 3300 free
books
 Library staff presented at more than 200WIC classes and issued
more than 400 library cards
 Met and exceeded our goal of having 75% of participant families
with library cards
 From Lauren Dodge, former health department nutritionist:
 I get comments months later about how wonderful their
experience was in the WIC class because of a reading of Pete the
Cat or Five Little Monkeys. It shows parents how fun a library
storytime can be AND it shows them how to playfully read to
their children. WIC clients really do love what we are doing, and
the children look forward to coming now.

15. Measuring
Success
 Pre-K Lottery Applicants & Rising Kindergarteners
 Library staff attended 9 pre-k lottery days and distributed
over 650 free books to applicants
 Library staff attended 10 Kindergarten registration days and
distributed over 1000 books
 Barrow County Foster Children
 80 foster children received a new book at Christmas time, as
well as a new book and library summer reading information in
May
 Barrow Child Find
 More than 300 books have been distributed to Child Find
families
 Library staff have signed up an additional 200 library cards
at other BBP events beyondWIC classes

16. Looking ahead
 For 2017-2018 we received an increased grant from the
Harrison Foundation to continue our efforts
 Branching out to local pediatrician’s offices that serve
low-income families
 Since WIC programs see a lot of client-turnover, we
continue to shoot for 75% of families having at least 1
library card

17. Resources for
low-cost books
that we’ve
used
 First Book
 Books by the Bushel
 The DollarTree
 Ingram—staff can help create selection lists of board books that
come in under budget after the discount
 Local bookstores
 Book drives, donations from local businesses, etc.

18. Contact Info
Beth McIntyre, Director
Piedmont Regional Library System
bmcintyre@prlib.org
Kelli McDaniel, Assistant Director
Piedmont Regional Library System
kmcdaniel@prlib.org