PORTAGE COUNTY AND UWSP READ

One billion half-inch books equals the diameter of the earth!

The University Library is joining school, public, and special libraries in Portage County to count the books we read for pleasure in the next several months. Our totals will be added to a national total to reach a goal of one billion books read before April 1997. The COUNT ON READING IN PORTAGE COUNTY challenge is being made to all children, teens, and adults.

Count on Reading is a national program to demonstrate the impact of avid reading on young people and adults. It is an initiative of the American Association of School Librarians, a division of the American Library Association. It challenges us to read a billion books and to BUILD A NATION OF READERS.

Everyone is invited to participate. Simply come to the University Library and record the number of books you read on the UWSP READS chart near the main circulation desk on first floor. (////=4 books read) If you read a book to somebody else, that counts too, but assigned reading for classes does not.

The numbers of books read recorded on the chart will be added to the Portage County total at the end of each month. Watch our numbers grow on the window of the Charles M. White Public Library on Main Street.

The COUNT ON READING IN PORTAGE COUNTY challenge extends from this November 13, Children's Book Week, until National Library Week in mid-April. The children at the Gesell Institute have already begun their count.

For more information about COUNT ON READING, contact Sybil Strupp.