We can't say we spent a lot of time thinking about how Basic Needs could improve the community through books and then went and developed a public school book program. Our donors and customers started the program and then we started thinking.

When we began gathering clothing in 2003, the community donations included books, so we built shelves to hold 6,000.

In 2007, along came a young lady, who was working on her Girl Scout Bronze Award. She asked if Basic Needs would donate books to East Clayton Elementary School for use in the classrooms, rather than in the formal library. It fit the educational component of our mission, so she picked out about 700 and stocked the classrooms. The children could take the books home and would not have to return them. Books, when available in the home for young children, can start them on a lifetime journey of reading. We simply encourage the community to make book donations and then we encourage schools and teachers to utilize our inventory to encourage reading. This thinking is being realigned, since we started lending our books directly to the public for 12 hours a week 52 weeks a year, during hours the schools are closed. By 2009, the library was staying open 15 hours weekly, the same as Johnston County's Four Oaks Library, which has paid staff.

During the first year of acquisitions, Cleveland Library started seeking out books to share with local school and government libraries. This boosted the size of their collections at a time when budgets were being trimmed and book purchasing was curtailed. The program was successful enough to start offering classroom sets.

These are not the only schools, but our books have been placed in:

Benson Middle School
Clayton High School
Cleveland Elementary School
Cleveland Middle School
E. Clayton Elementary School
Garner International Baccalaureate High School
North Johnston High School
Selma Elementary School
West Smithfield Elementary School
West Johnston High School
Westview Elementary School