Library

Our library is located at our San Juan Happy Tummies site. We praise God that our library now has 2,400 books cataloged. Books are cataloged using a program called LibraryThing. Our books receive bar codes and spine labels so the kids can easily find and check out books. Through a system called TinyCat, every child is registered with their own barcode in order to take books in and out of the library.

The library has become a great space for kids to read, work on homework, and do small group activities. The library is equipped with computers, internet access, and printers if needed for educational purposes. Having this space also gave us the opportunity to provide computer classes for the kids. We have hired a teacher to come on Saturday mornings. We split the kids into three age groups and our teacher works with each group for one hour. Our goal is that the children will continue on into middle and high school feeling empowered by having already learned some basic computer skills.

Anyone can access our library catalog. Use the link https://www.librarycat.org/lib/SanJuanLibrary. You can search books by title, author, subject, or any key words in order to see what books the library already has.

Please note that having multiple copies is not a bad thing. Oftentimes friends choose to check out copies of the same book. We can always share books with other HT locations, too. It’s simply a way for donors to see what we already have an abundance of and help fill in the gaps from there.

Donors often find books at library sales as well as Scholastic Warehouse sales. Some donors sign up online to be notified about sales in their areas. Regarding donated library books, it is helpful to take off any old library barcodes or spine labels to help with processing in San Juan. We do ask that donations be in good condition or relatively new and up to date. If a library is getting rid of a book because it is old or the information is no longer valid, the Happy Tummies children do not need it either.

Please make sure books are in Spanish or Spanish bilingual. While some of the kids take English classes in school, their primary language is Spanish and there is not room for many English-only books.

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Julie Williams at mainefrogger@gmail.com is a school librarian and can give book recommendations. She has cataloged a majority of our books and helped get the library up and running. She also has access to LibraryThing and TinyCat.

Andrea Mendez (andrea@impactoministry.com) and Becca Gruwell (rebecca@impactoministry.com) are onsite and can help answer any questions. They are knowledgeable as to what books we need and have been trained in using the system.