Book Collection at the Library: Wednesday, February 26-Wednesday March 5 

Imagine this scenario: You are one of the many classroom teachers working in an under-resourced public school in New York City. While textbooks must be provided by the city, copies of Harry Potter or The Cat in the Hat are not. Teachers must delve into their paychecks to expose their students to these treasured titles. In addition, many schools do not have libraries, and their students have minimal access to books at home, much less tablets and laptop computers. On the flip side, many New Yorkers’ voracious reading habits fill their bookshelves with more titles than can be contained. If you bring these two groups together, you have the uniquely resourceful Project Cicero. 

Project Cicero was initiated in 2001 to create or supplement school and classroom libraries.  In the past 14 years, Project Cicero has distributed more two million new and gently used books to 11,000 New York City classrooms and libraries, reaching an estimated 500,000 students. Project Cicero receives donations from individuals, families, and corporations, as well more than 100 private, public and parochial schools. It also benefits from generous contributions from many book publishers. Many of you have donated your own beloved children’s books at the Library each March. Project Cicero is named in honor of the Roman writer, statesman, orator, and philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero, who created extensive libraries in the first century BCE.

1,200 teachers from all over New York City will travel to the Pennsylvania Hotel across from Madison Square Garden March 7-9 to select books for their under-resourced classrooms. Hundreds of student, parent and teacher volunteers assist all weekend sorting and distributing the books. Please help our efforts as we collect new and gently used children’s books at the Library February 26 through March 5.  Please visit www.projectcicero.org for more information, as well as for a wish list of titles that can be donated online. Your donation can truly make a difference.