Collecting books
The Book Room and Monroe Public Library
The collaboration between the Book Room and the Monroe Public Library is the main source of books for Cat Tales. The library sends books removed from circulation to the Book Room so that resources aren't wasted. The initial idea for this concept was that teachers would be able to choose these free books from the Book Room to add to their classroom libraries. Cat Tales was formed to bring these resources straight to the teachers in their classrooms to save them the time and effort it takes to visit the Book Room. Cat Tales provides a variety of books based on the preference of teachers, and ensures a rotating selection periodically to benefit students.
Hosting a Book Drive
In addition to books provided by the Monroe Public Library, Cat Tales also benefits from book drives in the local community. Groups that have sponsored book drives include Girl Scout troops, church organizations, and other community service groups. Book drives are a great resource because books that families have outgrown can be passed down to children in classrooms to be read and enjoyed again.
A community book drive can easily gather a couple hundred books with the help of promotion through social media and community outreach. Attached is a basic flyer that can be customized, shared online, or printed and distributed to promote a book drive:
How to organize books
The concept of the Book Room is that books will be constantly flowing through the room, which does not allow for a strict method of organization. Instead, books can be organized in general categories to make it easy to fill boxes for distribution. Some categories to group books into include: picture books, leveled readers, early readers, chapter books, young adult, graphic novel, non-fiction (science, biography, sports), etc.
Remember that the goal of the Book Room is to be a holding space for books before they are distributed. Ideally books will NOT be strictly organized because the collection will constantly be growing and changing.