Mountain of donated books needs sorting, Paterson library chief says
March 7, 2013, 10:06 AM
BY ALLISON TROBIANO
STAFF WRITER
The Record
As a Central Jersey volunteer group Wednesday morning delivered another 1,000 children’s books for the Big Book Drive, the coordinator of the effort sent out an appeal for volunteers to help sort an avalanche of donated books in preparation for a major distribution event in April.
Cynthia Czesak, Paterson’s library director and book drive organizer, said the drive has been a “tremendous success,” with an estimated 10,000 books already collected. The Big Book Drive is an effort of the Paterson library and The Record and the Herald News to collect as many new or gently used books as possible to give to Paterson children to take home.
With heaps of books in boxes at the Southside library branch at 930 Main St., and untold hundreds more gathering at partner libraries in Allendale, Maywood and Ridgewood, Czesak says the new priority is recruiting volunteers to sort the donated volumes.
“There are already some individuals and groups who have volunteered to help, but we will need all the help we can get,” she said, having begun setting up a sorting project in hopes of beginning on Saturday.
