I would like to offer a big thank you to HarperCollins, Penguin, and Air New Zealand for helping the Embassy with literacy projects in Samoa.

Our Embassy Apia team has built in the Nelson Public Library on Upolu what is called an American Corner – a room with computers, internet access, American literature, other books, and inviting furniture.  The goal is to create and maintain a place where patrons, particularly youth and children, can read comfortably and do research.  Such American Corners are particularly beneficial in places where access to books and the internet is not otherwise widely available.

So that we could provide a more extensive and diverse array of materials than the Embassy could swing itself, we asked a few U.S.-based publishers to pitch in.  Penguin and HarperCollins both responded immediately and enthusiastically, and they have sent us gratis a total of more than 600 books for children and youth. 

After opening today’s mail from HarperCollins and Penguin.

With similar generosity, Air New Zealand offered to transport the books from Wellington to Apia at no charge. 

These three companies are stand-up corporate citizens.  As you patronize them or bump into their employees in your travels, please thank them for their support.  And of course, if you happen to work at a publisher yourself and have books to contribute, please shoot me a message.

I have a particularly warm spot in my heart for public libraries – and for folks who support them – because one of the things that gave me the most pleasure as a child was the public library in the small coal mining town I grew up in. 

My original hometown, Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania.

I can still recall the day – when I was 6 years old, I think – that my Mother marched me the 3 blocks down Pine Street, across Main Street, and around the corner onto Mahanoy Avenue to the Mahanoy City Public Library, to get me my very own library card (which I still have).

I became a heavy and regular user of the facility almost immediately.  I would sign out as many books as possible and then find places to hide around home or in the hills outside town so that I could read in peace.  (We lived above my family’s butcher shop and I had a younger brother, so fleeing into the hills was sometimes a tactical necessity.)  Because of the library I was able to escape to exotic places like Egypt and Japan, help Sherlock Holmes solve thrilling crimes, learn to generate electricity from a potato, and roam Middle Earth and Mars.

All in, my exposure to the library helped open my mind to possibilities and opportunities.  It gave me a place to learn, experiment, and exercise choice without undue adult intervention.  It taught me to imagine more freely, and to think more broadly.  It also kept me out of trouble (unless one counts as “trouble” dodging chores in order to read, which I never really thought fit the definition).

Click the photo to find out why these students are laying carpet instead of reading.

So, I like helping public libraries and thanking other folks who help public libraries … whether they are enthusiastic 4^th graders, wise government budgeteers, or public spirited corporations. 

Which brings me back to Penguin, HarperCollins, and Air New Zealand.