Programs & Partners: Building Home Libraries and the Motivation to Read

BookSpring offers a Continuum of Literacy Programs designed to reach children from birth through age 12 by building an active and supportive community of readers. We offer these programs: Books Beginning a Birth, Books for Me, ReadWell, Family Book Clubs, BookSpring Days, and Open Book. We reach children and families where they live, work, and play through professionals and community members that they know and trust.

- Books Beginning at Birth provides book deliveries every six months into the homes of children from birth through age 4 years of age, along with a newsletter and a large library of digital books for access anytime.
- Books for Me provides books for ownership, motivational activity kits on loan, and technical support for book distribution events at sites that work with children from birth through age 12, primarily in educational settings such as elementary school libraries, childcare centers, and early childhood programs.
- ReadWell provides books to pediatricians and healthcare providers to distribute as part of regularly scheduled well child exams. There are 14 well-child visits recommended by professionals between birth through age 4. Additional materials such as informational videos and prescriptions to read a book together twice a day are also provided. Sites can receive books on a monthly or quarterly basis.
- Family Book Clubs are offered periodically throughout the year with programs and partners who work directly with families. Up to six hour long sessions cover the basics of effective reading together, including repetition, asking questions, and connecting the words in the book to the world around us. Families also receive books and incentives for participating.
- BookSpring Days are structured book distribution events support by BookSpring staff and volunteers. We match the types and quantities of books available with the demographics of the partner sites. Additional support for motivational activities is available.
- Open Book provides free books to partners and programs to come pick up for their own book distributions. First come first serve and subject to availability.

Our programs are made possible through partnerships with over 300 organizations, agencies, nonprofits, schools, and healthcare organizations sharing the joy and benefits of books with children and families across Texas. As an ongoing strategy, we focus on partners in Education (BookSpringEd), Healthcare (BookSpringRx), and the Community (BookSpringG0), in order to reach children and families who need books the most.

Program Impact

We measure our activities in numbers and demographics of readers, books, sites, and hours spent directly and indirectly with children. We measure our program quality through observational and self-report surveys, and look for large scale change at the population level through the annual Texas Reading Survey. We evaluate our impact through a variety of evaluation methods grounded in research-based models that focus on pre-literacy, reading, and language arts skills. We engage elementary students and the librarians, teachers, healthcare professionals, and parents of all children in our service area through the inspiration of being lifelong readers. See our Updates for recent reports on our progress and our annual reports for metrics of books distributed, children engaged, and hours of engagement across all our programs.

Let’s Partner

Bring BookSpring Programs to the Children and Families You Serve

If you are a community leader, school librarian, teacher, principal, pediatrician, medical professional, or childcare provider interested in promoting literacy with the children and families you reach, we need your help to coordinate our programs for delivery at your location.

Central Texas Organizations may apply to participate in BookSpring programs. Most programs require a small program fee of $0.79 cents per child per event, and a signed letter of agreement at least 4-6 weeks in advance or your planned event. You can work with you leaders, parents, local businesses, funders to underwrite your participation and we sometimes have special discounts or waivers for specific geographic areas of need from our fundraising efforts. Applications are taken on an ongoing basis, but our requests are generally greater than we can accommodate, so applying early is key to ensuring your spot.
All Texas Organizations are encourage to become program advocates for Books Beginning at Birth, to help share how families can apply directly for books, as well as be eligible for a one-time book distribution event.

We want to work with you to get books into the hands and homes of your students, patients, and clients! Your involvement as a volunteer site coordinator is critical in developing a fully literate future together. Contact us to learn more about how to enroll in our partner services.