Your Support Matters!
The more you read, the more things you
will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.
The more you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.
-Dr. Seuss
Your support of the New Orleans Public Library Foundation truly matters. Large or small, your donation makes a big impact on the New Orleans Public Library system and on the New Orleans community. Every dollar that is donated to the New Orleans Public Library Foundation goes directly to supporting, sustaining, and growing our public library system’s programs and services. Because of your generous donations we are able to support more then just the basic operations of the library. When you give a gift to the New Orleans Library Foundation, you are giving a gift to the entire New Orleans community and its future.
Prior to Katrina in 2005, New Orleans had 40 literacy programs. Katrina destroyed 27 of these programs, only 13 survived.
The New Orleans Public Library system is working hard to fight illiteracy. The National Adult Literacy Survey indicates that 25 percent of U.S. adults read at the lowest functional level. In New Orleans, that figure is 44 percent according to the survey, which is performed every decade and was last conducted in 2003.
According to the Louisiana Department of Education, 42 percent of students who graduated from high school in New Orleans in 2004 had "unsatisfactory" English scores. And more than one in 10 students dropped out of high school.
Facing these statistics, The New Orleans Public Library Foundation pleads for your assistance to help sustain and grow our programs and services and in fighting for our community’s right to read, right to learn, and our right to the pursuit of happiness and a better life.
Currently we are providing the community with several amazing programs focused on targeted groups such as children, through Children’s Book Week, Reading to Rover, Summer Reading Program, Recommended Reading Lists, Kid’s Jam Story Time and the Louisiana Young Readers Choice Awards. Targeted programming for teens, aged 12-17, include The Teen Center and Activities, Teen Read Week, Summer Reading Program, computer training, teen-only computers, Young Adult Fiction Collection, Graphic Novel Collection and Teen Craft Day. Also, the New Orleans Public Library Foundation has partnered with the YMCA to provide the YES Projgra, one of the few adult literacy programs available in the city.
In the end, we envision for New Orleans a vibrant public library system featuring excellent facilities and offering quality services, programs, and technologies that support a culture of lifelong learning, promote a strong democracy, and advance a creative economy for all throughout the City.