by Emily Ball Cicchini, Executive Director This coming “hindsite is 20/20” year promises to be landmark one for BookSpring and for all the partners and families with children we serve. Wouldn’t it be great if we could know now what we’ll know in the future? Well, we can’t! The best we can do is pay […]
Blog posts with author attribution to Emily Ball Cicchini Executive Director of BookSpring
Reading is Complex: And That’s Good!
by Emily Ball Cicchini, Executive Director Reading isn’t simple. I am noticing more discussion lately in education circles about reading and complexity. By complexity, we mean both the quality of the text that is being read, and what is going on inside the minds and hearts of the people who are reading. Reading is complex. […]
Sharing a Vision of 20 Books in All Homes
by Emily Ball Cicchini, Executive Director We here are BookSpring have announced a big audacious goal: to get 20 high quality children’s books in every Central Texas home by 2020. This vision is being driven by social science research that shows a statistically significant correlation between the size of home libraries and children’s future academic […]
Readings: Volunteerism and Values
This is a suggested pre-meeting reading for August 15, 2018, noon, at the Austin Public Library Central location. Free, but please RSVP. To learn more or register, visit here: BookSpring Lunch & Learn Overview of Volunteerism in America Over 63 million people in the United States volunteer each year, says the advocacy group the Independent […]
Resiliency and a Big Anniversary
by Emily Ball Cicchini, Executive Director This photo was taken at a lunchtime summer Go event at one of the Housing Authority of the City of Austin’s community centers. This young girl was so memorable to me, because she was so insistent that I read that one book, a counting book, over and over again. […]
New Study on Book Gifting for Babies
By Emily Ball Cicchini, Executive Director The tradition of book gifting has been studied scientifically by researchers in education and healthcare for many years. Practices include bookmobiles, little free libraries, and other early literacy interventions and social programs at the regional, national, and global levels. We at BookSpring look to this work to inspire and […]
Building Early Literacy in a Digital Community
By Emily Ball Cicchini, Executive Director The statistics about the struggle to achieve full literacy in America are startling and alarming: 14% of Americans are illiterate, with little change over the past decade, and 21% of adults can’t read above a fifth-grade level. Numerous studies connect lack of reading skills to negative life outcomes such […]
Using Digital Marketing to Promote Reading
by Emily Ball Cicchini, Executive Director A little over a year ago, BookSpring was awarded an Impact Grant from IBM to develop a Digital Marketing Strategy for our programs and services. Arranged by BookSpring Champion Beth Tracy, IBM Manager of Corporate Citizenship & Corporate Affairs, and lead by IBM consultants Karen Kersting and Julian Kamil, […]
Being with BookSpring
by Emily Ball Cicchini, Executive Director I recently passed an anniversary with BookSpring. I cannot tell you how blessed I feel to have been given the honor of carrying forward this worthy vision of creating a more literate future for all our children. Every day of each year, BookSpring has been delivering books to children […]
The Multifaceted Permanence of Books
by Emily Ball Cicchini, Executive Director My home was one of the many hit by the Texas Memorial Day floods. We are only now getting everything back in order, thanks to many helpful friends and services, particularly two burly men from Stanley Steamer and two helpful home inspectors from FEMA. The damage wasn’t major, but […]