Over 1,200 public school teachers across New York City will convene on March 10 and 11 at a hotel ballroom filled with children’s and young adult books donated to Project Cicero during our annual book drive. These devoted teachers spend a portion of their weekend cultivating their classroom collections from the wide variety of donated books. These books will serve the students of underprivileged schools that may be lacking in available reading material.

Project Cicero—named after Marcus Tullius Cicero, a first-century BCE Roman writer, statesman, orator, philosopher, and book collector—aids in enhancing the collections of classroom and school libraries in under-resourced NYC public schools. Over the past eighteen years Project Cicero has placed over 3.2 million new and gently used books to 20,000 New York City classrooms and school libraries, reaching over 700,000 students.

The Library is proud to be a participant in and sponsor of Project Cicero, and we need your help! Please donate new or gently used children’s and young adult books at the Library from Thursday March 1 through Thursday March 8. Please visit the Project Cicero website for more information, including our Wish List. Every donation helps this valuable and scholastic cause.