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COMPUTER LITERACY

By Michael Hutchins, Herald Democrat

The Denison Public Library announced Monday it will receive nearly $70,000 in grant funding to help expand two of its programs. Officials with the library announced that it will receive $55,000 from the W.B. Munson Foundation for it’s Read to Win program, which looks to promote literacy in reading prior to children entering kindergarten.

Through the program, a staff of two teachers and one program coordinator visit area pre-kindergarten, head start programs and child care providers to read with children. Each month, students are also given books to take home and add to their own collection, Denison Public Library Director Kimberly Bowen said Tuesday in a phone interview.

Bowen said the program has a regular annual budget of $81,000, but the library is looking for an additional $20,000 to expand it into Pottsboro for the next year. Currently, the library provides throughout Denison and Sherman. Ultimately, the goal is to provide this service to all child care operations throughout the three cities, she said.

Read to Win is an important program for the library because it helps set the stage and prepare students for their future education in the school system, Bowen said. By the time children enter kindergarten, their vocabulary can range from that of a two-year-old to that of a 10-year-old based on their exposure to literacy and reading, Bowen said.

This exposure can vary depending on the amount of time a child spends reading with a parent at a young age.

“We have a lot of children who are at a disadvantage because of the poverty level or because their parents don’t understand the importance of literacy,” Program Supervisor Joyce Ullah said.

Each year, the program assists about 1,000 children and hands out about 11,000 books, Ullah said.

“The Read to Win program exists to provide literacy-rich, early childhood learning experiences for children from birth to five years of age,” the library said in a Facebook post announcing the grant. “Recognizing the parent as the child’s first and most important teacher, Read to Win strives to provide the tools and resources critical to preparing the young child for reading success as they enter school.”

The Denison Public Library also announced Monday that it will receive a second grant of $14,200 from the Ladd and Katherine Hancher Foundation to assist its new adult computer literacy classes. The grant will be used to purchase 24 laptops and a charging station.

Through this program, the library offers free weekly courses covering basic computer skills, how to use common computer programs and internet literacy and safety. In its three classes thus far, about four to six people, ranging from those in their 40s to their 60s have attended, Bowen said.

For the first classes, Bowen said the library had to temporarily close a portion of the public access computers. However, the addition of these new computers will alleviate this need.

Bowen said the library started these programs as more and more of daily life, including work, is taking place online.

“For the library, this is about staying up to date with the needs of the community,” she said.