OTHER PROGRAMS
Battle of the Books
Foundation for Baltimore County Public Library is proud to sponsor Battle of the Books competitions, hosted by various branches throughout the library system. Battle of the Books is a program in which students in grades 4 to 6 from participating local elementary schools read Black-Eyed Susan-nominated books and come together in teams chosen by the schools to demonstrate their abilities and to test their reading comprehension in a quiz show format. The Black-Eyed Susan Book Award is a children’s choice award given to authors and/or illustrators of outstanding books. The award has been given by Maryland students every year since 1992.
Become a sponsor. Contact Julie Saxenmeyer at 410-887-3282 or by email.
1,000 Books Before Kindergarten
1,000 Books Before Kindergarten is a reading program for parents and caregivers to complete with their children from ages birth to 5. Reading out loud with your child helps them develop important early literacy skills—such as speaking, listening and communicating—before they start kindergarten. It’s never too early to read out loud to your child! There is no minimum age requirement for this program. The more words your child hears and the more stories they are exposed to, the better they can understand the world around them.
Become a sponsor. Contact Julie Saxenmeyer at 410-887-3282 or by email.
Read Rover
Read Rover is a bookmobile specializing in early childhood literacy as part of the Youth and Family Engagement Department’s Mobile Engagement Group. Read Rover supports Baltimore County Public Library's mission to foster a lifelong love of learning in children. The vehicle exclusively visits underserved communities where residents may have mobility or transportation issues, reaching children who have often never set foot in a library before.
Foundation for Baltimore County Public Library fully funded the purchase of Read Rover.
During the months of October-May, Read Rover makes monthly visits to licensed day care providers that serve children who have socioeconomic barriers. The children and teachers board the truck for a short program. The story time programs incorporate pre-reading skills that prepare the children for entering school. The teachers are able to get support for their instruction by requesting a teachers collection that Read Rover delivers to them on their monthly visits.
During the summer, Read Rover visits communities that have children and families who have barriers to access to traditional library services. Staff provides materials and activities to support out-of-school-time learning and gaps for summer reading. Youth and Family Engagement mobile vehicles are stocked with a variety of materials for children and teens. In 2018, there were seven community stops. In 2019, that was expanded to 15 community stops.
Rosedale Branch Teen Space
Thanks to a generous $25,000 grant from Rosedale Federal Savings & Loan Association, a new teen space was created at the Rosedale Branch. Rosedale Federal partnered with the Foundation to identify a need in the library that would benefit the community. The space was outfitted with two wall-mounted flat-screen televisions, two PlayStation 4 gaming consoles, Oculus Rift S virtual reality headset, PS4 VR headset, gaming chairs, study tables, a larger table for board or card games and a branded partition that defines the new area.
Free Tax Preparation Service
In 2019 and 2020, the Foundation, along with community partners PNC and Wells Fargo, funded a free income tax preparation site inside the Randallstown Branch of the Baltimore County Public Library. The site was run by the CASH Campaign of MD, which is an organization that promotes economic advancement for low-to-moderate income individuals and families in Baltimore and across Maryland. Applicants were required to have an individual or family income of less than $55,000 annually to qualify. Preparers assisted with eligibility for the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the Child Tax Credit (CTC), which comprise some of the largest anti-poverty measures in the United States. By providing this service, applicants retained their entire refund and realized an overall supplement to their annual earnings, rather than losing an estimated 25-50% of it to fees for commercial preparation and high-cost “refund anticipation checks.”
Hereford Branch FutureMakers Program
The Foundation awarded a grant to the Hereford Branch to offer a series of FutureMakers Digital Fabrication Workshops for children ages 8 to 16. The workshops offered STEM-related learning through fun, accessible programs such as 3D Printing and Sticker Labs, where children used software like TinkerCAD, SketchUp and Inkscape to create 3D models and graphic designs.