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CLAYTON – Hocutt-Ellington Memorial Library in Clayton has received a federal 2021-2022 Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grant. The library has been awarded $5,270 for their Active Reading Experiences program.
In order to help prepare Clayton‘s growing population of young families to learn active reading skills and to prepare their children ages 0-6 for Kindergarten, the Hocutt-Ellington Memorial Library will provide Active Reading Workshops for parents and children and build and circulate 35 Active Reading Experience Kits that contain books, manipulatives, activities, and multimedia resources centered upon a variety of themes.
The Active Reading workshops will be presented by the Partnership for Children of Johnston County. These workshops will teach parents how to actively read with children and how to build literacy and kindergarten readiness skills. The circulating Active Reading Experience Kits will include information and activities presented in the Active Reading Workshops, along with books and ancillary materials, thus allowing all library patrons the opportunity to practice early literacy and pre-kindergarten skills and activities at home.
There were 47 LSTA grant awards to local library projects across the state this year. The grant awards are made possible by funding from the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) as administered by the State Library of North Carolina, a division of the NC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. LSTA grants are awarded in response to specific needs of public, academic, and community college libraries. These federal funds are investments that help libraries deliver relevant and up-to-date services to their communities.