Statewide E-Book Grant Benefits Kids

Thanks to a $125,000 grant from the Illinois State Library (ISL), the Reaching Across Illinois Library System (RAILS) is currently in the process of purchasing high-demand e-books and audiobooks for K-12 readers. The grant money allows RAILS to acquire additional educational and recreational titles for juvenile and young adult users of the eRead Illinois Axis 360 shared digital collection.

eRead Illinois is a popular materials e-content collection that is available to Illinois libraries. It includes over 50,000 best-selling e-books and audiobooks for readers of all ages. Eighty-three schools have joined eRead Illinois since July 2020 for a total of 235 schools, including those in the process of joining. There are currently 254 public libraries with the service.

As of March 1, 2021, RAILS spent a total of $65,488 of the grant money: $40,545 for 1,646 e-books and $24,943 for 486 audiobooks. RAILS added both recreational and educational materials to supplement the high-demand titles that are the focus of the collection.

COVID-19 mitigation efforts have made it particularly hard for libraries to reach school-aged children. RAILS Associate Execute Director Monica Harris said, "The pandemic has sharply increased demand for e-books at RAILS libraries and this demand continues to grow. At area schools, new remote and hybrid learning models have created an urgent need for reading materials that can be accessed remotely."

Public libraries also face the challenge of providing educational and recreational e-resources for students, as many are not able to access materials in the library and in many cases are spending a lot more time at home. "This grant enables RAILS to meet these very important needs for both school and public libraries. In addition, supporting the youngest patrons helps create lifelong library users that see their library as a resource for fact-based information," said Harris.

Thanks to parallel funding from ISL, the Illinois Heartland Library System can add e-resources to their SHARE CloudLibrary collection. Both grants were provided by the Illinois Secretary of State/Illinois State Library using funding from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) disbursed by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, an extension of the Library Services and Technology Act program, with the intent for funds to go directly to library systems for the purchase of e-books.

The Reaching Across Illinois Library System (RAILS) provides delivery between libraries across a 27,000 square mile area, shared online catalogs, e-book services, continuing education for library staff, and other leadership services and support to academic, public, school, and specialized libraries in northern and western Illinois. More information about RAILS is available at railslibraries.info.