Outreach: Mailbox Books

Submitted by Jeanine Thompson

We are so excited about our Mailbox Books program! Many residents of Forsyth County are not aware that the library offers free materials to our homebound citizens via mail. This program is open to all Forsyth County residents who are not able to access our branches. 

Mailbox Books is a personalized service. Each patron is called and "interviewed" to get preferences such as large print, preferred genres and authors. Some of our patrons have a list of specific books they would like to receive; others prefer that we choose for them. Our patrons look forward to our phone calls, and we enjoy getting to know them. Some are voracious readers and want as many as 10 books at a time, while others prefer to have 2 or 3. They keep the books for a month, and then send them back in our postage paid mail pouch. The process is simple; the books are placed in the bag they came in and the address card is turned over to the side that has the Forsyth County library address. There are absolutely no charges for this service!  

We not only send books, we also send magazines, audio books and music CD’s. We try to personalize each shipment. Sometimes we send bookmarks or a small craft. A patron at one of our lobby stops crocheted several of the flower bookmarks for us to share with our mailbox book patrons. Melissa Gunter, who heads up the CrafterNoon program at Cumming shares extra craft bags that we periodically send out. Each shipment also receives a handwritten note of encouragement. 

We are always so excited to meet a Mailbox Book patron! Pictured below is a Mailbox Book patron that recently moved into one of the assisted living facilities that we visit monthly. 

A big "Thank you" to Leslie Marinelli for the recent Facebook post about this service! We are already getting results from it! 

We are always looking for ways to get the word out about this service. There are many, many people in Forsyth county who are homebound and could benefit from our Mailbox Books program. Recently we met with Forsyth County Senior Services and they will be distributing 200 mailbox book rack cards to their Meals on Wheels clients. There is no age minimum; homebound children have used mailbox books also! 

Mailbox Books is a lifeline for people in the county. One of our homebound patrons commented, "I have anxiety, and nothing calms me down like reading a book. It's even better than my medication. If I run out of something to read, I feel like I am going to cry! It just makes my week to get a bag of books from you!" 

What a privilege it is to get to help our homebound residents in this way!