FACT SHEET: Spreading the Joy of Reading to More Children and Young Adults

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Every child deserves the chance to learn and thrive in an environment that is enriched by the latest technology. In 2013, President Barack Obama announced ConnectED, a signature initiative focused on transforming teaching and learning through digital connectivity and content. Building on the progress made to date, at the Anacostia Library in Washington (DC), President Obama will announce two new efforts to strengthen learning opportunities by improving access to digital content and to public libraries: new e-Books commitments and the ConnectED Library Challenge.

The first is commitments from publishers to find ways to make sure their content is available to low-income youth in America. Major publishers are announcing they will make over $250 million in free e-Books available to low-income students. Nonprofits and libraries are partnering with each other to create an app that can deliver this content and materials from the public domain. Complementing that effort, the ConnectED Library Challenge is a commitment by more than 30 communities to put a library card into every student’s hand so they will have access to the learning resources and books they can read for pleasure, all available in America’s libraries. These initiatives represent another way the ConnectED effort is making a real difference for students. Combined with the $2 billion in private-sector commitments, and Federal Communications Commission funding for school and library connectivity that includes $2 billion specifically for Wi-Fi, and $1.5 billion more in annual funding -- this announcement brings the total value delivered as part of this five-year transformation in American education to over $10 billion. And as a result of these commitments, we are on track to meet the President’s goal of connecting 99 percent of students to high-speed broadband in their classrooms and libraries.


FACT SHEET: Spreading the Joy of Reading to More Children and Young Adults Obama Offers 10,000 E-Books for Low-Income Students (edSurge) ALA welcomes White House’s ConnectED: Library Challenge (ALA Press release)