Illinois State shelves free-book program

Anonymous Patron writes “Sad News from IL. Santa Claus may bring books to your kids this holiday season, but Gov. Rod Blagojevich won’t.
His administration quietly dropped plans to partner with a Tennessee foundation to offer free, age-appropriate books to Illinois children younger than 5. The “Imagination Libraries” program was estimated to cost the state $26 million per year if all eligible children were signed up for monthly mailings. First-year costs were projected at a smaller amount, at least $5 million.”

December 21, 2004 by Uncategorized 2

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2 Responses

  1. rochelle says:
    December 21, 2004 at 9:30 pm

    I beg to differ
    Anon characterizes this as “sad news,” but it shows some rational thinking. This program, while a nice idea, had librarians throughout the state quite rattled. It was to be independent of libraries, used books from only one publisher, and as the story pointed out, was ridiculously expensive, with none of the money spent staying in the state. Besides, many libraries already have books-for-babies programs. From where I am, this is terrific news.

    Reply
  2. GregS* says:
    December 22, 2004 at 1:50 am

    Re:I beg to differ
    You’ve already hit 5 so I’ll just say “Ahem to that!”

    Reply

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