Southside Library Grants

The Friends of the Library have raised the following grant funds from the following sources. A nutshell description of what the grant/money was secured for is also included:

• Brindle Foundation $25,000 for Book and Babies program providing support and programming for children age 6 months through 3 years for pre-reading and library usage. Includes staffing and materials. The Brindle funded program will begin in September at the La Farge Branch and then be at both La Farge and Southside in 2007.
• New Mexico Library Foundation $1,000 for publications and signage in Spanish for the new Southside Library. Signage has been ordered.
• Santa Fe Community Foundation Allan Houser Native American Advised Endowment Fund $500 for children’s Native American books. Native American children’s book are on order; a booklist will be created this fall highlighting these items.
• Enterprise Community Partners Grant Fund $5,000 for books and media, including books on CD. Materials are on order.
• Buckaroo Ball $20,000 For staffing, materials and resources to work with at-risk youth, mentoring, outreach to involve young people in reading. The hiring of a .5 FTE youth outreach librarian and securing materials will be in place in early 2007.
• Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation $22,500 for computers. 15 public computers are on order for the Southside Branch.
• Wachovia Foundation $500 matching. Unrestricted.
• S.B Foundation $5000 Unrestricted.
• Sam's Club Foundation $500 unrestricted.

A total of $80,000 in grants has been raised to date for the Southside Library’s many needs. Unrestricted funding is allocated to books, materials and program needs not funded by the General Fund.

The Friends of the Library’s mission is to raise funding for books and materials, programs and projects not funded by City general funds. The 501 c 3, volunteer organization was founded in 1974. The Friends take part in many projects, such as Community Days, Borders Day of Giving and Tierra Contenta Days to raise awareness about libraries and their many resources and services. The Friends’ volunteers also run the Book Store in the Main Library and hold many book sales of donated books throughout the year to benefit the library’s book collection.