Motlow State Community College students, faculty and staff from the Smyrna campus recently participated in the collection and delivery of books in support of the International Book Project (IBP). The IBP is a non-profit organization that works to support and increase awareness for literacy across the globe.

This was the third annual book collection from the Smyrna and Murfreesboro area, and yielded a total of 3,764 books from various sources throughout Rutherford County. Books were collected between May 2014 and Nov. 2015, before being driven and delivered to the IBP headquarters in Lexington, Ky., on Dec. 30, 2015.

Paige Hendrickson, librarian for the Motlow Smyrna campus, donated her time and funds to take the books to the IBP headquarters. Hendrickson has taken books from previous collection efforts, and has been instrumental in making the local project a success.

"Literacy is an important life skill that is often taken for granted in many developed countries, like the United States," Hendrickson said, "but illiteracy is still a growing problem. This tradition of collecting and transporting books to the IBP is in keeping with the overall purpose and mission of libraries."

Numerous volunteers from the Rutherford County area helped make this large undertaking possible by collecting, counting, boxing, loading and unloading the materials.

Additional sources of books for the collection effort included several Rutherford County and Murfreesboro City schools, the Rotary Club of Smyrna, and Read to Succeed; a non-profit agency that works to improve lives through reading by establishing literacy partnerships in Rutherford County.

The first book donation to IBP occurred in 2012 and totaled 3,165 books, while the second donation yielded a total of 4,836 books in 2013. The grand total of books donated for the three drives is 11,765.

For more information or to volunteer for future book collections, please contact Paige Hendrickson at phendrickson@mscc.edu or 615-220-7815.